E-commerce firms play it safe, give staff digital lessons

India’s top technology companies are providing digital training to blue- and grey-collar workers as well as external stakeholders like corner stores, as they scale up operations almost overnight amid an acute labour shortage because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Startups including Swiggy, Zomato, Grofers, BigBasket and Flipkart among others have had to impart training digitally to thousands of delivery executives, services staff, pickers, packers and warehousing workers quickly as the ongoing nationwide lockdown leaves no scope for in-person interactions. Others, such as Urban Company, Ola and Uber are conducting online training for their service professionals and driver partners on best practices, faced with disruptions due to the virus outbreak.
The digital onboarding comes even as these startups have managed to push the envelope with respect to safety measures for their workforce and delivery partners.