Coronavirus Impact: Cognizant, Wipro, Tech M Restricts Travelling; Employees Feel This Is Not Enough

As per the reports, Cognizant and Wipro joined the list of companies restricting travel and canceling upcoming technology events due to risks of spreading the Coronavirus.

How Did This Happen?

Many are asking the million-dollar question about the IT industry, if they could have handled the confusion over the suspected COVID-19 cases in a better way.

From the earlier reports, we know that the positive cases in European countries, especially in Italy, began surfacing by February 15 and by February 22, some deaths.

In spite of having this knowledge, the IT companies sent their employees to these countries and failed to quarantine those who returned to the city from different countries.

Now with the current developments, Cognizant is restricting all non-essential travel including an upcoming ‘Cognizant Community’ event scheduled in Texas, in light of risks related to the spread of COVID- 19 (Coronavirus), according to an email sent to employees by Brian Humphries, CEO of the IT services company on Wednesday.

What Is The Plan? 

Further, the company would encourage employees to use Webex, Skype and related technologies to manage work and talk to team members. 

Each business unit member of Cognizant would have to assess if critical, client-facing travel events “to determine if they are really essential,” according to the sources. 

Moreover, the previously booked future travel would also require re-approval, the mail added.

The company would encourage employees to use Webex, Skype and related technologies to manage work and talk to team members. 

Further, each business unit member of Cognizant would have to assess if critical, client-facing travel events “to determine if they are really essential,”. 

Apart from that, the previously booked future travel would also require re-approval, the mail added.

What About Other Companies?

The other technology companies also have been restricting travel for employees outside India.

They are also encouraging them to work from home while taking measures to prevent the spread of the virus from employees who have recently traveled to at-risk geographies.

The IT major Wipro in a statement, said, “Wipro has suspended travel to and transit through mainland China, including Hong Kong and Macau, until further notice. 

Also, the employees have been advised to avoid non-critical travel to Singapore, South Korea, Japan and Italy.

For the employees, who have traveled to an affected area within China in the last few days has been asked to work from home for 14 days before returning to the office. 

They have also advised their employees to be vigilant, especially those based in China and those who have visited the country recently.”

Moreover, the clients of technology companies have also canceled travel plans to India, according to some companies.

Harshvendra Soin, Chief People Officer, Tech Mahindra, said, “At Tech Mahindra, we strongly believe in “Wellness before Business”, which is why amidst the current Coronavirus outbreak, our focus is on ensuring the well-being of all our employees and partner ecosystem. We are working towards ensuring our employees are not just aware but also educated on preventive measures that can be taken. 

R Srikrishna, CEO of mid-tier technology provider, Hexaware Technologies.“We expect a significant amount of travel restrictions from customers around the world that will reduce customers executives visiting India, or to any of our centers around the world. The impact has already started and is likely to last several weeks,”

Zoho, the SaaS application provider has also taken measures such as canceling user conferences, said Rajendran Dandapani, Director of Technology at the company. 

They further said “We have canceled our user conferences in a few at-risk countries, banned all non-critical travel for our employees and readied our disaster-response teams for quick action,”.

Image Source (PTI)