COVID-19 has impacted all industries in one way or another. The real estate industry, the third largest employer in India according to data, feeds multiple industries including the elevator industry, too is being impacted.
At Otis, we’re in the life safety business and we put people at the core of everything we do. Even before the lockdown was announced, our field teams were asked to follow all the safety related precautionary measures proposed by the government. A number of precautionary measures were put in place to protect our field professionals such as using hand sanitizers, masks, PPEs. The health and safety of our employees and the riding public has always been our number one Absolute.
The COVID situation helped underscore the necessity of elevators and soon our field teams became part of the essential services needed to keep first responders moving during the lockdown. Thankfully, we were able to continue servicing facilities like apartment buildings and hospitals in this period. Field experts were reassigned units based on where they live, to respond to call-backs within the same vicinity, to reduce travel times for the employee while ensuring faster response time for the customer. Most of our office staff began working remotely in accordance with the country’s lockdown. Focus teams were formed to maintain business continuity and develop a safe and healthy processes for a full return to work.
Otis India also contributed to the Prime Minister’s “PM CARES Fund,” created to provide relief to the thousands of people in India affected by the coronavirus.
In addition to this, we have focused on the mental and overall well-being of employees, including their families and co-dependents. We promoted our existing “Employee Assistance Program,” which offers courses/webcasts focused on managing stress and maintaining positivity.
At Otis India, we have set up a well-being program, to help improve and sustain the quality of employees and their families’ lives. For this current pandemic situation, this program aims to help employees navigate through the new normal which includes elements like how to cope with working from home or in isolation, lack of external stimuli, ability to stay motivated, being able to stay emotionally connected while social distancing, all of which are arising out of the remote working arrangements or working in isolation.
Like any adversity, COVID also presents opportunities to improve ourselves and our company. We are working closely with customers to understand how their needs are shifting and identifying what product features and services are most beneficial to them.
To address their needs, we are introducing the use of Otis’ eCall app which enables passengers to use their cell phone as their personal elevator call button and call an elevator when approaching it. This helps minimize the passengers’ use of public access elevator buttons. Also, we are introducing our destination dispatching system-“CompassPlus™, which groups passengers headed for the same destinations into the same elevators, thereby reducing wait and travel times. While we are working on near term and short-term solutions, our focus remains on longer term solutions like digital technologies which will take the industry to the next level. Apart from driving efficiency, quicker resolution and transparency, digitalization and IOT will also serve the need for remote maintenance service. We continue to remain focused and commit our investments towards these programs.
We see our maintenance business as being strongly resilient to whatever the future may hold. While there may be some delayed demand to discretionary projects in this post-COVID world, Otis is well-positioned for sustained, long-term growth in an industry with strong fundamentals, backed by macro trends such as urbanization and digitalization.
With regards to installation work, our teams are in constant touch with the customer to understand their reopening schedules and priorities. We are partnering with customers in supporting their reopening needs. We have set up and are constantly reviewing our SOP’s for work places like retooling, hygiene kits, social distancing, to ensure that it follows government guidelines and industry best practices. Regular communications with suppliers and our field workforce will be particularly critical to help them adopt new ways of operating and working.
While the global pandemic has been challenging for everyone, our business remains strong and resilient – we’ve seen a lot in 167 years and weathered many storms.
As we move toward our new normal, we will continue to cooperate and work with government officials and industry bodies, support our customers, stay optimistic, and be resilient. This too shall pass.
