Motilal Oswal tells employees to disconnect from work entirely after shift ends

Motilal Oswal Financial Services has implemented a new policy named ‘switch-off’ under which employees will not be allowed to work beyond their fixed shift timing of 8-8.5 hours. The move is aimed at improving employee wellness and productivity, group chief HR officer Niren Srivastava told The Economic Times.

The Mumbai-headquartered broking firm will shut down its email servers, and employees will be logged off from sending or receiving emails, both internally and externally, after a 45-minute grace period after the shift hours. If anyone stays beyond his or her work shift time, the person will be asked to vacate the office premises.

Motilal Oswal, the group managing director and CEO, said that it was not the number of hours that mattered, but what mattered was the employees’ peace of mind, satisfaction, well-being, and productivity. He said this new policy was essential because it gave the employees the freedom to put their health and well-being first.

The responsibility of implementing the new policy across all offices has been given to the admin and HR departments. The new policy will apply to about 9,500 of its 11,000 employees as the top executives and employees from private equity, asset, and wealth management, and investment banking have been excluded due to their work schedules, reported Business Today.

The group’s chief HR officer said that the “human brain gets saturated beyond 8.0-8.5 hours”, and the firm should not undermine the added commute time. He said his group’s philosophy is that they expect people to come on time and leave on time. ‘Work starts essentially when one leaves home and ends when one reaches back home, so organizational policies should be designed accordingly’ reported the Economic Times.

The new policy is one of the first of its kind in corporate India and aims to improve employee wellness and ensure a healthy work-life balance. The company strongly believes in prioritizing the health and well-being of its employees, and this policy allows them the freedom to do so, Oswal said. The administration and HR teams are responsible for ensuring compliance with the policy across all offices.

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