IAA's new initiative seeks to end rigidity in office timings

IAA's new initiative seeks to end rigidity in office timings

IAA

A new social initiative titled #WorkToLiveToWork has been undertaken by the International Advertising Association’s (IAA) India chapter with Nandini Dias, managing committee member of IAA and CEO of Lodestar India, at the helm. Dias lost two colleagues in separate accidents related to railways during rush hour in the last 18 months.

Dias has conceptualised #WorkToLiveToWork to urge CEOs/HR heads to help Mumbai-based companies to implement flexible office timings for employees so that they don’t risk their lives to reach their workplaces.

Ramesh Narayan, President, IAA India Chapter, said, “Every year IAA undertakes initiatives to show that communication can be an effective force for the good of society. This year Nandini Dias is spearheading this meaningful project.”

The initiative intends to end the irrational rigidity in Mumbai’s office timings and save lives. Reports show that every day approximately nine people die on the suburban rail network, which is nearly 3,300 people in a year. Many of these people travel in the overcrowded transit system just to avoid a late mark as that leads to penalty on their salary.

A campaign has also been designed around #WorkToLiveToWork.

“Instead of waiting for the transport infrastructure to be fixed, which would obviously take a long time, Dias’ idea was as practical as it was simple. When asked, most CEOs and HR heads agree that flexi timing is a good idea. In fact many also say that in their office, they had implemented flexi timings since a couple of years. The fact is that while heads of offices are not against it, they have done very little to actually roll it out. There is no data to say how many people actually are on flexi timing. Also if it was real then the rush hour traffic would have eased out,” he added.

Said Dias, “I am urging all companies to come forward and adopt this to save the lives of Mumbaikars. Let’s all agree that, besides expressing outrage we need to help the government in mitigating the crisis. So, whether you are an employer or an employee, think about it, talk about it, bring it up as often as you can to drive change and save lives. Even if we reduce the number of people losing life from nine to seven per day, we would have saved over 700 lives in a year."

To take this initiative forward, besides Lodestar UM, IAA has the support of Taproot Dentsu that created the communication. The Economic Times, Hindustan Times, Indian Express, Laqshya Media and Radio City have come on board as media partners.

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