Online hotel management and booking platform RedDoorz announced a new mental-health support program for its employees, hotel partners and their staffs. The program called the COVID-19 hope hotline is part of its regional corporate social responsibility efforts.
“The ongoing pandemic has resulted in immense stress on our economies, healthcare systems, and people. As COVID-19 continues to restrict mobility and the immediate outlook remains uncertain, many of us could be experiencing negative emotions detrimental to emotional and mental wellbeing,” said RedDoorz founder and CEO Amit Saberwal in a statement.
According to a study conducted in China during the initial outbreak of COVID-19, 53.8% of respondents rated the psychological impact of the outbreak as moderate or severe. A research of over 2,000 employees by Qualtrics, which included Singapore, has shown that employees have been reporting lower levels of mental health since the outbreak began.
RedDoorz partnered with online platforms to conduct free counseling sessions remotely, as many cities across the region are enforcing mobility restrictions. The company tapped Kalm, a Jakarta-based online health platform for its Indonesian staff and partners. In the Philippines, it worked with individual psychologists providing video sessions. There are further plans to host a wellbeing webinar for all professionals in the travel and hospitality industry in the last week of May.
The ongoing pandemic, with more than four million cases globally, is hitting the travel and hospitality industriy hard. As governments are issuing travel bans worldwide, many companies are struggling to survive. RedDoorz itself reportedly offered a temporary furlough to its staff, exposing employees to uncertainty and stress about the future.