Nearly 55% of employees inoculated, 1 lakh vaccine doses procured: Wipro

Nearly 55 percent of Wipro’s employees have been vaccinated against COVID-19, the company’s chairman Rishad Premji said at its annual general meeting (AGM), on Wednesday.

“We have vaccinated over 35,000 people at our campuses, while over 55 percent of our employees have already been vaccinated in total,” said Rishad.

While the number of Wipro employees vaccinated totals to 87,000 and counting, the company said this tally includes those employees vaccinated on campus and outside.

“We have procured one lakh vaccine doses for employees and their families across the country,” Rishad said adding, “We have provided vaccines to 35,000 employees and their families thanks to this procurement. The demand for vaccines is coming down now since people have more options for vaccines, today.”

The announcement comes even as Wipro has begun charting out a hybrid model for the future of its workplaces, making it clear that they don’t see a future where all employees will be present in the office at all times.

“Wipro has settled well into remote working — nearly 97 percent of our employees work from home — and we expecting virtual, remote, community-based and distributed models to be the future of work at Wipro,” Rishad said.

Nearly 40 percent of the company’s employees working from home are working from their native hometowns, the company added.

Ever since the pandemic began in March last year, Wipro has enabled employees across the world to work from home. In the last 15 months, the company has lost 122 employees to COVID-19, even as it has boosted measures as employee-focused COVID response.

“We have a moral obligation to do everything we can for employees and loved ones during this difficult time. We have offered COVID-care sick leave and have enhanced medical insurance for our employees,” said Rishad.

Wipro also launched a 450-bed COVID hospital in Pune, which the company said has treated 6,000 patients so far.

“In the last 12 months, Wipro has supported over 15,000 humanitarian aid and livelihood generation projects. We have reached out to 18,000 people as part of our COVID response,” he added.