Best Practice I:

Title of the Practice: HR Policy during the lockdown

Objectives of the Practice:

• Adopt fair practices
• Avoiding laying off human resources
• Ensure some income for subsistence

The Practice:

In the academic year 2020-2021, lectures were engaged online and very small percentage of the employees were reporting for work at the initial stages of the relaxation of lockdown.

The College Management on a year-on-year basis sanctions appointment of faculty members and non-teaching staff on contractual and temporary basis for filling vacant positions in the aided section for which no objection certificate for appointments from the Government are due but not issued. Appointments of this nature are also made in the self financing section. Housekeeping, gardener and security services have always been outsourced by the Institution. During the lockdown period the services of many of the human resources appointed on such basis were either not required or could not be utilized completely.

The College Management understood the hardships with respect to employment opportunities that faculty members and non-teaching staff who are usually appointed on contractual and temporary basis and the housekeeping, gardener and security staff would face, if they are laid off.

As the full-time services of faculty members who are usually appointed on contractual basis were actually not required during the complete and partial lockdown periods, instead of laying them off, the College continued their services on visiting basis.

As the classroom and other facilities were not being used, during the lockdown only 50% of the outsourced housekeeping and security staff were reporting on rotational basis. Yet the College made full payment for the services to the contractor.

Evidence of Success:

As has been the practice, the College continued to make payments of salaries/honorarium to the faculty members and staff at the beginning of the month even during the lockdown. This to an extent possible helped to ensure that the livelihood of the concerned faculty members and staff was not affected. While the College Management wanted to support the faculty members and staff during the difficult pandemic situation, it has been observed that most of the faculty members and staff have continued their services with the Institution.

Problems Encountered and Resources Required:

The College charges fees strictly as prescribed by the University of Mumbai. Over and above this, as mentioned above, the College not only continued to extend the facility for staggered payment of fees but also has not been able to collect the total fees due from some students for the academic year 2020-2021. This definitely had an impact on the income for the College.

Other than the financial resources, admin resources were required to keep track of all the faculty members appointed on visiting basis and staff appointed on contractual basis.

Best Practice II:

Title of the Practice:

Theme of the Year – ‘Water Conservation’. This theme was continued during the academic year 2020-2021.

Objectives of the Practice:

The Institution follows a healthy practice of having a ‘Theme of the Year’. A Theme of social and/or environmental significance is chosen as the theme and many activities are accordingly planned and organized during the academic year. This is done with the purpose of:

• Creating awareness about the significance of the theme
• Sensitizing the Faculty Members, Administrative Staff and Learners about social and environmental issues
• Organize events to highlight the areas that need attention and action
• Inculcate the value of giving back to the society

The theme for the year was ‘Water Conservation’. Water is the most precious resource. It is also on the list of resources which may soon become scarce. This theme was chosen with the intention to ‘Make Every Drop Count’. A group of Faculty Members and learners worked as ‘Water Warriors of Tolani’ during COVID times and effectively used the online platforms to create awareness about various issues related to this theme.

The Practice:

Links to articles on facts, figures, data related to ‘Water Conservation’ were shared with Faculty Members, Administrative Staff and Learners. These articles highlighted the issue of scarcity of water, major initiatives taken by the countries, small measures that can be implemented by common man in his/her day-to-day life. There was follow-up at the end of a period of three months to get the feedback from the target audience regarding the usefulness of these articles and the practice that they felt that they could adopt.

Evidence of Success:

In their feedback, many have shown interest in taking up the cause of ‘Water Conservation’ and shared the measures they feel they can follow for doing their bit for this cause.

Problems Encountered and Resources Required:

During the A.Y. 2020-2021, the usual activities such as skits, street plays could not be organized. Still the adversity was used as an opportunity and online platforms were used for spreading the message