Hyderabad: Startups struggle to retain staff despite maintaining safety protocols

Hyderabad: Every 7 out of 10 startups are struggling to provide a healthy workplace for their employees in Hyderabad. A majority of the software startups could be able to provide work from home but the starts-ups in fields like art, fashion, acting, food, and others are facing hardships. These startups couldn't provide work from home as they need employees to work from their offices and at the workplace, they cannot provide safety as they establish their companies in a very little space, where they cannot maintain social distancing.

"Employees are submitting resignations due to fear of Covid spread as my workplace is congested. In this Covid crisis, it's really hard for me to shift my office to another place and it's more difficult to get one more office floor in the same area as my startup really cannot afford the rents and am helplessly accepting the resignations after failing to convince the employees. However, we maintain social distancing, sanitation, mask, and all the Covid protocols in the office but only seating arrangements are challenging. At the beginning we ourselves requested employees to quit office to handle the space," says G Suresh, a startup founder from Kukatpally, Hyderabad explaining the seriousness of the issue.

In another scenario, a founder of a fashion designing studio says, she already needs space to stock the products and it's impossible to mark and maintain more distance at the workplace. "We adjust in the limited space to design and draw, if we add a boundary like social distancing, I should only call three to five employees per shift. Materials itself occupies my room space in large and maintain all the Covid norms and shorten the number of staff designers from eight to six and we are adjusting in two well-designed designer studios with a plan," said Ch Gowthami, Dharshu Collections.

Moreover, startups that provide work from home facility express disappointment that their employees are unable to perform at their best and the performance from home is going down day by day from women. "Creating a peaceful workspace at home is difficult with kids and aged parents at home and it's difficult to manage work and home simultaneously. We are tired of juggling work, chores, and childcare at once," said an employee S Ashwini, working from home in Mettuguda.