NavitasCares: A Navitas Life Sciences Initiative to Support Employee Health and Well-being during COVID-19

Navitas Life Sciences has been quick to provide leadership to all its stakeholders, with care and health as its top priority. Safeguarding health has always been crucial, and particularly important during difficult times.

With employee needs for safety, security, support, and stability constantly evolving, we worked to develop tailored and sophisticated approaches to address the needs of our global team.

Navitas Life Sciences has leveraged the use of its digital technology, and knowledge about employee behavior to provide continuous proactive support throughout the pandemic.

7 Ways we maintained a caring culture during COVID-19 #Navitascares

1) Townhalls and webinars to discuss emerging scientific viewpoints: Organizational support can have tangible benefits on the employees. Well-structured townhalls and webinars were developed to help make sense of the ongoing pandemic, aiding in building resilience using information.

An in-depth webinar on COVID-19 vaccination, the different types available, the side effects to look out for, and the benefits of vaccination helped build employee perspective.

Dr. Ayaaz Hussain Khan

Global Head, Generics Navitas Life Sciences

Expert Insights about COVID-19 Vaccination by
Dr. Ayaaz Hussain Khan

• Details about the different vaccine types
• Benefits of vaccination
• Discussion about the different commercially available vaccines
• Science backed responses to employee queries

Read more here.

The webinar on COVID-19 vaccination played a significant role in encouraging employees to get vaccinated

Knowledge sharing session about COVID-19 – COVID-19 FAQs with
Dr. Atul Gupta

Discussion about

• COVID-19 Clinical Presentation
• Prevention
• Tests
• Treatment

• Oxygen requirement
• Spread
• Plasma

Dr. Atul Gupta

AVP- Medical and Scientific Affairs Navitas Life Sciences

The webinar helped employees gain authority knowledge about COVID-19 and to define their path towards safety and care.

2) Empowering with easy to understand COVID-19 Safety information: The pandemic has played out to be one of the biggest in terms of human tragedy in recent times. The extent of information available about the pandemic, and the measures thereof, have been wide ranged. However, not all information is trustworthy. The first step towards empowering employees was providing the right information, especially towards preventing COVID-19, in easy to understand posters and information charts.

3) Providing a platform for queries: Navitas Life Sciences has on board medical experts with vast experience who excel at bringing lifesaving medicines to market sooner, including for infectious diseases. A panel of such experts was constituted to help address employee queries, with a Navitas Cares 24x7 Doctors helpline to provide medical assistance at all times.

There have been unprecedented disruptions in the lives of employees, with many questions arising about safety and care. The platform provided to employees was an effective sounding board to voice their anxieties, with our experts addressing queries with the latest scientific information and practices to follow.

4) Emphasizing Importance of stress management and mental well-being: One of the important effects of COVID-19 has been on anxiety levels and a subsequent effect on mental health. It is the time to embrace our humanity and to lead with care, providing the right resources to allay fears and stressors.

Employee engagement initiatives included methods to cope with pandemic mediated stress, and sharing information about professional support services. Our services have extended to include a dedicated helpline to support mental well-being of employees, when in need.

5) Driving wellness and effectiveness of the workforce: Navitas Life Sciences leveraged its digital solutions and expertise to move towards virtual clinical trials to maintain clinical trial continuity, and for safeguarding both patient and employee health.

With most employees working from home, it has been important to maintain engagement and to address prominent needs like diet and exercise. Pandemic mediated lockdowns resulted in restricted movement outdoors. Expert curated diet and fitness regimens were shared, grouped together by core themes that focused on general well-being.

6) Weaving the Navitas Community together to bridge needs: The Navitas community has always stayed together, walking through natural calamities and unprecedented events, together, and with commitment.

Special initiatives were taken during the Chennai floods in 2015 to provide the resources and support to employees, catering to their unique needs. A similar approach has helped in tailoring unique solutions to individual needs during the current pandemic.

Employees who have been quarantined at home, are provided home cooked meals by members of their team, while some others are provided places to self-quarantine.

Navitas Community Initiatives – Walking together hand-in-hand

• Home cooked meals from teammates
• Providing places to self-quarantine
• Access to medications
• Delivery of groceries and emergency supplies
• Vaccination drives
• Transport support for hospital needs

7) Sharing personal experiences to raise awareness: There is a need to codify methods to cope with the infectious disease, and to mitigate risk. The best and the most trusted way forward is to understand strategies utilized by COVID warriors (people infected with the virus and who recovered after showing symptoms)

Our COVID warrior, Praveen K.R, helped us gain insights about the progress of the disease condition, the physical and mental effects and the various coping mechanisms.

Praveen K.R

Vice President Global HR Operations

Praveen K.R’s journey through COVID-19 and how he coped

• Provided insights into the physical effects of COVID-19
• Discussed various coping mechanisms utilized to manage the condition
• Real-life hard-hitting facts interspersed with positivity to build resilience

Navitas Life Sciences has continued to display bounded optimism by striking a balance between reality of the unfolding pandemic while building confidence to cope with the uncertainty during the months ahead. NavitasCare has helped build a community of knowledge sharing, of inclusion, and of psychologically empowering environments as we move forward, together.