The impact of commuting has a major influence on employee retention. Travel time is now an increasingly important factor, as most job seekers prefer travel time over the company when looking for a new job. In addition, job seekers worldwide have turned down a dream job because they found the travel time too long. A commute time of more than 90 minutes per day to get to work and back home leads workers to look for a new opportunity closer to home. The same is true for the many employers who lose their dream employees based on location and commute time alone. With increased migration to cities and never-ending traffic woes, travel times to the office are expected to increase in the coming years.

Long daily commutes affect workers physically and mentally and contribute to stress, depression, and anxiety. For years, people in India’s major cities have taken long commutes to work, spending nearly 2 to 3 hours on their daily commute – and still do. For years, job platforms have remained stuck in the old traditional approaches and have never thought about how they can help solve one of the biggest problems faced by job seekers. A survey by Ernst and Young shows that nine out of ten workers want flexibility in terms of where they work, and when given the choice, 40% of workers surveyed choose a work location closer to public transportation

For more than a decade we have been hearing about work-life balance and employee wellbeing as one of the most important corporate agendas, but we have seen little action in this area. At a time when well-being and work-life balance are becoming increasingly important, travel time to and from work is becoming a bigger and bigger annoyance for employees. So big, in fact, that it not only leads to unhappy and unproductive employees but even to them leaving your company.

Employers are busy filling their vacancies and have never really looked at how these daily long commutes affect their employees, which in turn is one of the main reasons for low productivity. The other reason for low talent retention is long commutes and burnouts. A shorter commute makes employees happy, and stay longer in the company and thus reduces the cost of recruitment and new hires. As per the data from the Air Quality Index (AQI), daily long commutes also add to pressure on the public infrastructure and add to the ever-increasing pollution affecting the health of employees in metro cities.

In light of the increasing attrition of workers due to work-life balance issues caused by longer commute times, Indian HRTech start-up InRadius has launched a job search platform that enables workers to find their dream jobs in major cities close to their homes, reducing the unproductive long hours they spend commuting to work every day. Currently, the platform is operational in Mumbai (including Mumbai metropolitan areas), Pune, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Delhi NCR, and plans to expand its operations to all major Indian metropolitan cities in the next 9 months.

“Through InRadius, we are committed to revolutionizing the job search experience and empowering individuals to find opportunities closer to their homes. Our goal is to create a positive impact on people’s lives by reducing long commutes and achieving a better work-life balance. We are excited about our ambitious targets and confident in our team’s expertise to make a meaningful difference in the job market,” said Darshan Vyas, Founder & CEO of InRadius.

InRadius aims to reach 1 million registered jobseekers, onboard over 2000 companies, and have 10,000 active jobs on its platform by the end of March 2024. Looking to the future, InRadius has set long-term goals that encompass its vision of transforming the job search landscape and promoting work-life balance. These goals include becoming the first choice for Indians looking for a job close to home, being the preferred talent search platform for start-ups and SMEs, and addressing the problem of long commutes to work globally.

InRadius primarily targets professionals who face long commutes every day, young professionals looking for a job close to home, and companies that value a better work-life balance. InRadius wants to be perceived by its key stakeholders as a company that is revolutionizing the job and talent search and profoundly changing people’s lives by reducing commute times, easing the burden on public infrastructure, and lowering carbon emissions at the same time.

– SURESH RATHOD

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“Work From Home” has become “Work From Anywhere – Carry Your Hotspot” is the New Mantra for PR and Corporate Communicators.

New Delhi: “The Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) did tremendous work during the Covid19 pandemic through their initiatives ranging from supply of oxygen to hospitals, creation of infrastructure to supporting lakhs of migrants”, said Shri Atul Sobti, Director General of Standing Conference of Public Enterprises (SCOPE). He was speaking at a webinar organized by ‘Public Relations Society Delhi’ on Saturday.

In his hour-long virtual interaction, he spoke passionately about “The role and contribution of CPSEs during the pandemic & the way forward for the Communication professionals” at the above event.

Elaborating upon how CPSE rose to the challenge of the pandemic SCOPE DG said “CPSEs are the real warriors. Many public sector workers lost their lives while serving the Nation. On 24 March 2020 when the first lockdown was announced, everyone was scared but CPSEs came forward and contributed close Rs. 2400 crore to PM Cares Fund, apart from CM Care Funds. The CPSEs provided infrastructure in the Hospitals, apart from providing masks, medical equipment, sanitizers, etc. Many CPSEs converted their facilities on war-footing and made them capable to supply medical-grade oxygen to every nook & corner of the country”

He spoke about how CPSEs are surrounded by many myths ranging from under performance to loss making. He highlighted some interesting facts and figures during the course of his interaction by saying that “During first Five  Year Plan, there were only five CPSEs and today we have about 348 CPSEs, out of which 249 are operational. These CPSEs contribute 13% of India’s GDP, with a turnover of  USD 363 billion. The combined contribution of India’s CPSEs is more than the combined contribution of 160 countries’ GDP put together. In coal sector, 92% of total work is done by the CPSEs; similarly, 51% in Power Sector, 83% in Natural Gas Sector,  37% in Fertilizer Sector. These are the published facts as given by DPE in the year 2018-19.”

He added, “CPSEs made profit of Rs 1.75 lac crores; against the common myth that CPSEs are loss-making, 178 out of 249 CPSE (75%) are profit- making. In USA alone, there are close to 7000 listed companies, only 38% are profit-making. In India’s  stock exchanges, there are about 7400 companies,  more than 50% are profit-making.”

Speaking about technological transformation took place during the pandemic, Mr. Sobti mentioned that “earlier people had not even heard of a Webinar and they were only used to attending conferences in auditoriums, but now everything has changed.”

On the emerging trends in corporate communications and usage of social media by CPSEs, he said, “Many CPSEs are still not using social media so frequently. At SCOPE, we started using Twitter and gradually moved to other social media. We asked every employee to have a Twitter Account for wide amplification and in no time we witnessed exponential growth. At the end of month of May, it  crossed one lakh mark. All CPSEs have joined hands with us on social media, we were tagging them and they were retweeting it. Unfortunately, the strength of social media is still undermined by many CPSEs.”

About Public Relations Society Delhi, he said, “I am very happy to know that PRSD is doing good work for enhancing skills of PR professionals. It has a vision to get recognition of PR as a Profession to recon with. I would also like to give my wish best wishes to Shri SS Rao for taking over as Chairman, PRSD.”

Continuing about technological change, he said, “As against the physical format, SCOPE has now asked for online applications for its Eminence Awards. All recruitment applications are also being invited via online.”

When asked about how PR is evolving, he replied: “It has been there in one form or another since civilization began on earth. All the kings used to have services of messengers and  the machinery used PR along with their work. Propaganda was used even during world war era. PR as a profession has been in existence over the past 75 years and has established it self over a period of time. It is basically a strategic communication with stakeholders for attracting goods,  customers, employees, vendors, etc. But 80% of Corporate Communication includes event management, hospitality, logistics arrangement, publication, crisis communication etc.”

About technology disruptions, he said, “Time has changed, we can no longer follow the old methodology, even typing on computers is changing. Working from everywhere with hotspots is the new reality.”

Advising PR Professionals, he said, “As PR, you need to know that brevity is the key. Like in Twitter; Publication and Content, as two separate terms, are getting merged. In today’s time,  Communication Professionals have  to generate the content and publish it too.  Earlier, Communication professionals were used only for internal communication but now they  should have knowledge about both the internal and external communication strategies and tools.  One has to be a custodian of all corporate-related information.”

To another question on ‘whether the stature of PR should be elevated to policy level, he replied, “Communication can play major role in meeting company’s objectives, positioning company internally and externally. Communicating with various agencies, helping in decision making, contributing towards healthy HR environment, effective administration, etc.  I feel communication professionals are supposed to act as information custodians and as such, they shall guide management on what needs to be done. In organizations, we already have Chief Technical Officer, Chief HR Officer; similarly, there should be provision for Chief Communications Officer too.”

Mr. Sobti released SCOPE’s special issue of ‘KALEIDOSCOPE’ on its 40th anniversary. KALEIDOSCOPE is a monthly magazine published by SCOPE. DG, SCOPE also mentioned about the compendium  which included the work undertaken by CPSEs during the Covid-19 released by Hon’ble Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Union Minister of Information & Broadcasting and Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises.

Shri G.S. Bawa, Secretary, PRSD hosted the Webinar while Chairman Shri SS Rao delivered the Welcome Address.  Vote of Thanks was proposed by PRSD’s Governing Board Member Shri. Vipin Kharbanda.

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*Muzzafarpur,1^st August 2020*:  India BPO Promotion Scheme has become a boon for those who had to leave their homes and families in search of a job. Hundreds of youths interested in BPO sector can now find employment in their hometowns. *IBPS is a scheme which runs under the Digital India Program launched by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY)*. The Vision India BPO in Muzaffarpur, established under this scheme is a first of its kind organization employing more than 250 youths. Women and disabled have been especially benefitted through this BPO founded in 2016.

According to *Vivek Kumar, the CEO of Vision India*- a company associated with human resource development that runs skill development programs in small towns, “We had always believed in the efficiency of this town`s youth population. We knew they would be capable enough to meet the work requirements in BPO sector once we trained them. But as in the case of all new startups, we were analyzing all the perspectives of this initiative. Our company conducted a survey which revealed that 56% of the employees working in the BPOs running in the metro cities belong to small towns. The main reason behind this was the lack of employment opportunities in these cities. This motivated us to open BPO centres in tier II & III cities and Muzaffarpur is one of them.

IBPS removed all the barriers: Vivek Kumar adds, “Several obstacles came up during the process of opening BPO centres. The financial viability of BPO centres was the biggest challenge we faced. Fortunately, we got to know about the *IBPS implemented by STPI*. Many problems were solved due to the support given to us by STPI. Under this scheme, one can avail a benefit of Rs. 1 lakh per seat, provided they qualify certain standards set by the government. We have employed the youth while benefitting from IBPS. This scheme is not only directly or indirectly providing job opportunities to the youth but also putting a stop on their migration from this region.”

A golden opportunity for women and disabled:

A huge number of youths being employed are women and disabled. Vivek Kumar says, “The parents in small towns are hesitant in sending their daughters away for education or jobs. Due to this, many talented girls are denied the opportunity to get a job or showcase their potentials. This initiative has paved path for many girls to work in the BPO sector and prove their talents. Besides that, many disabled youths are making their futures bright by working at this centre. This initiative also helps in the all-round development of youth. They are trained in a manner that they can work and perform not only in the BPO sector but in any other industry as well.”

What is the aim of IBPS: The aim of IBPS is to create a system through the expansion of ITES/BPO operations. This would boost the development, make the investment easy and attract the industrial world in such regions. *This initiative by STPI and Vision India in Muzaffarpur* has indeed pushed this region ahead in the field of ITES/BPO. It has not only reduced the migration of youth by providing jobs to them but has also socially helped them in carrying out their responsibilities towards their families.

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