A professional in human resources (HR), Shachi Singhal started working for the automotive manufacturer Maruti Suzuki almost ten years ago. Before the emergence of Covid-19 a year ago, the typical workday lasted from nine in the morning until five in the afternoon. After that, employees were required to perform their duties at home. (WFH). Her daily routine abruptly changed from attending meetings and presentations at the headquarters of the business in Gurgaon to participating in virtual meetings from the comfort of her own living room. Instead of having casual conversations with coworkers over coffee, we started using Zoom or WebEx instead. After a year has passed, when the rest of the world has finally adjusted to life with Covid, Singhal has returned to the workplace, but now he is only there three times a week. According to her, her business is exploring the possibility of making working remotely a permanent policy. She states, “A year ago, I would have never imagined not going to office every day, but WFH has been effective and has, in fact, increased productivity.” “A year ago, I would have never imagined not going to office every day.”
In December of 2019, Richa Sharma was forced to leave her well-paying job in an energy business in Mumbai and move back to her hometown of Jaipur in order to take care of her sick mother. Richa’s mother had been suffering from cancer. At the very moment that Sharma was getting ready to go back to work toward the end of February of the previous year, the nation went into lockdown to combat the pandemic, and the majority of businesses stopped recruiting new employees. She was offered a temporary position with the Axis Bank auditing team in September, and she accepted. The most favorable aspect was that she could perform her job duties from Jaipur. She had to make a small sacrifice in terms of the compensation that she received, but the amount of flexibility that the position provided more than made up for it. “I am fortunate enough to not have to commute to work, and more importantly, I am employed in a position that I find rewarding.”
As business as usual is resumed by India Inc., the profound shift that the epidemic is causing in the organizational structures of various companies is becoming more apparent by the day. The days of sprawling workplace complexes that were jam-packed with workers are long gone. The new period will usher in a hybrid workforce, in which the majority of workers will perform their duties from home while others will commute to the office two or three days per week. There will also be adjustments made to the methods of performance management and recruiting. Gig workers will become an increasingly popular option for businesses as a cost-cutting measure. We are never going to return to the days when all of our workers reported to the workplace each and every day. Roshni Wadhwa, Director of Human Resources at L’Oreal India, predicts that more than 80 percent of the workforce will transition to flexible work arrangements.
According to a report that was just released by Accenture, nearly forty percent of today’s employment can be done from home. More than one-third of workers in all fields have the goal of increasing the amount of time they spend working from home in the near future. “Companies that enable their employees to work from home, either on a part-time or full-time basis, are realizing advantages such as decreased expenses, increased productivity, and improved access to talent. According to Aditya Priyadarshan, Managing Director of Strategy and Consulting for Talent and Organization at Accenture India, “an organization can save nearly $11,000 per year for every person who works remotely for 50 percent of his time.”
Although companies in the service industry have historically been ahead of others in terms of offering their employees more freedom, the manufacturing sector, which has traditionally been resistant to such changes, is beginning to catch up. One year after the pandemic began, Rajesh Uppal, the Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) of the country’s biggest automaker, Maruti Suzuki, believes that more than 55 percent of Maruti’s workforce can move to hybrid model. (which means either working from home permanently or coming to office a few days a week). “As a direct consequence of WFH, absenteeism has dropped by a significant amount. According to Uppal, our overall productivity ratings have seen a significant improvement. He is of the opinion that the majority of white-collar jobs can be performed in a combined capacity, with the exception of manufacturing jobs, in which workers will be required to report to work each and every day. He goes on to say that “We are giving reporting managers the authority to decide their mode of work.”
Hybrid Model
Working from home is no longer looked down upon as an inferior option. However, the importance of physical relationships cannot be overstated. “Is it possible to make all purchases over the internet? Probably not. When you look at creativity and collaboration, you’ll see that they both require you to work together by their very nature. You are not making breakthroughs every minute, so it is not necessary for you to be in constant communication with one another. According to Chaitanya N. Sreenivas, Vice President and HR Head at IBM, “as a result, you need to be able to recognize when you need to come together and enable that accordingly.”
The idea of being able to work from any location and enjoying the flexibility that comes with it is appealing, but the actuality is quite different. After being cooped up in their houses for nearly a year, people are becoming antsy and desperate for the opportunity to engage in physical activity. A good number of them are also under the impression that they run the danger of being disregarded by management. “Human beings require societal connections. According to S.V. Nathan, Partner and Chief Talent Officer at Deloitte India, “They need to come to office, otherwise they will go berserk.” [Citation needed]
The combination model is beneficial for workers as well. According to Satpreet Chelawat, who is Senior Vice President of Retail Banking at Axis Bank, her existence has never been more structured than it is right now. Chelawat visits the workplace twice a week, the primary purpose of which is to socialize with his coworkers and generate ideas. When it comes to the work that we do on a regular basis, we have become accustomed to working on virtual assignments. We even collaborate with teams from different functional areas and handle problems virtually. According to the Chief Human Resources Officer of Axis Bank, Rajkamal Vempati, more than thirty percent of the bank’s non-core banking positions will become hybrid. “I will have people who will work from anywhere, in addition to those who will come into the office two or three days per week,” she said. In addition to that, I will have individuals working for me on temporary contracts,” she explains.
During this time of transition, technology has proven to be of tremendous assistance. During the height of the pandemic, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) introduced Secure Borderless Workspaces (SBWS), a cloud-based solution that permits employees working on multiple projects to access their work remotely in a secure manner. “Associates in all different roles are demonstrating strong performance in accordance with the SBWS model,” “As the pandemic scenario improves, we will actively promote a strategy of SBWS for core deliverables and work-from-office for hyper-collaboration such as design thinking, innovation labs, strategy workshops, etc.,” says Milind Lakkad, CHRO of TCS. “Work-from-office for hyper-collaboration such as design thinking, innovation labs, strategy workshops, etc.”
The adoption of the hybrid approach has the potential to enlarge the pool of available talent. Existing employees have the option of working from their home towns, which may be Tier II or Tier III towns. At the same time, businesses have the opportunity to recruit individuals from more rural areas. According to Vempati, seventy-five percent of her recent hires come from outside of metropolitan areas. The backgrounds of these individuals are as varied as those of new mothers, people who had left their professions, and failed business owners. “Skills are the currency of hiring today, not age or pedigree nearly as much as they once were.”
Companies that have made the transition to hybrid working arrangements are also in the process of rationalizing their workplace space. Nathan is anticipating that businesses will cut the amount of workplace space they occupy by 15–50%. In addition to that, he anticipates that they will set up workplace space in the suburbs, which will be situated closer to the homes of the employees. “Your place of employment helps shape who you are. Losing one’s identity can be a consequence of not having a fixed location of employment. It is imperative that organizations put in additional effort to develop a sense of identification and belonging among their members. But people can’t be replaced by technology; technology can only help connect people,” says Nathan, who adds that a number of organizations are attempting to keep in contact with their teams through the use of technology.
In order to achieve this goal, the majority of significant corporations are in the process of remodeling their workplaces. There is no denying that office spaces are growing smaller, but also gone are the days when employees had dedicated work stations. In their place are coming “hot desks” and more collaborative work spaces, in which individuals come on certain days to work, attend meetings, and then return.
“Work from office will be designed to build deeper personal relationships – both between teams and between our clients and our sales leaders,” says Lakkad of TCS. “This includes deeper personal relationships between our clients and our sales leaders.”
“We will redefine the office not only as a place where work gets done, but also as a place where people can come to build social connections, a place where they can connect with their teams, and a place where they can connect with each other.” According to Aarif Aziz, the Chief Human Resources Officer for Diageo India, “That is a significant change in our outlook for offices.” Diageo is considering establishing facilities in two or three different locations within a single city, such as Bangalore, where it currently only has one. It will assist us in controlling expenses and minimizing our environmental impact.
“Companies no longer want to do six-nine year rent deals,” said Amit Ramani, founder and CEO of the co-working space Awfis. They are searching for contracts lasting between 24 and 36 months, and the flexibility that they require can be found in a co-working location.
Administration of Performance
It is likely that having a hybrid workforce, in which some employees work continuously from home, some come into the office on certain days, and another set comes every day, will bring complications, particularly in regard to the management of performance. It is the expectation of Aditya Mishra, CEO of the HR services business CIEL, that employees who “work from anywhere” will be compensated differently than employees who report to the office. “The administration of performance will become more difficult. According to Mishra, “if a top performer who works from office receives an increment of twenty percent, a work from home worker will probably get ten percent because he or she also gets flexibility.” [Citation needed]
Richard Lobo, Executive Vice President and HR Head at Infosys, is in agreement that WFH will lead to changes in remuneration structures based on what is pertinent for remote employees. It’s possible that components like communication fees will become more important to WFH employees than allowances like housing and transportation costs. People will still be compensated based on the value they produce and the nature of their skills; however, the structures could be very different depending on whether or not you choose to work from an office in a major city or remotely.
The difference, according to Vempati of Axis Bank, will most likely be in the house rent allowance given to an employee who chooses to work from a smaller town. “Through our years of experience, we’ve learned that individuals who join our team through hybrid formats are significantly more proactive, and their time to full productivity is shortened.” Therefore, the only thing that will change is the expense of living adjustment if there is any change at all.
There are also some other alterations. “Despite the fact that the employee and manager do not interact with one another on a daily basis, there should be no disparity in expectations between the two parties. According to Aziz of Diageo, setting objectives and conducting evaluations may need to take place a great deal more frequently as a result.
Employees in the new normal, as described by Anjali Raghuvanshi, CHRO at Randstad, are seeking for instant gratification, as stated by the CHRO. “The review cycle of one year is too lengthy for the staff members. They are hoping the organization will provide them with immediate benefits. It’s possible to make bonus arrangements quarterly. You might have a pattern of annual raises, but bonus payments can be made more frequently.
Bhakti Vithalani, founder of the employee training consultancy BigSpring, agrees that “this is a great opportunity to transform performance management.” She is of the opinion that as more work is done electronically, employees will be given the opportunity to document their work through a video, which they can show to their manager once a week and ask for an evaluation of their performance on the job. “This will increase the employee’s level of engagement, which will in turn heighten the employee’s productivity,” she adds.
Performance management is likely to become more output centered in addition to having shorter appraisal cycles in the near future. Before the advent of Covid, the performance management processes of the majority of large corporations accorded close to forty percent of the total weighting to the process and approach of the employee toward a specific project or position. According to Mishra of CIEL, “Now it will shift 80 percent towards outcome and 20 percent towards process.” [Citation needed]
According to Wadhwa, L’Oreal India will soon implement a performance assessment system that is skill-based as opposed to the system that was previously in place, which was based on competence. The new performance management module at L’Oreal has been renamed “Meaningful Conversation,” and it will evaluate employees based on criteria such as their ability to collaborate with others, their agility, their creativity, and their ability to handle remote teams. “Our performance management system will also have components such as well-being,” the company said. We believe that your effectiveness is impacted by your holistic well-being.
Gig Economy
The IT and IT outsourcing industry is no longer the only one that can make use of contract employees. It is not specific to any one industry. Neither is the hiring of gig employees restricted to individuals with only entry-level skills. Maruti Suzuki just recently recruited a group of extremely experienced specialists for the digitisation project they are working on. These specialists are currently providing guidance to the digital team of the organization and will step down once the mentorship program has been finished. “In order to ensure that we have the right people in the right jobs, we are going to institutionalize gig roles.” They will be followed by our people, who will learn from them, and ultimately take control. According to Uppal of Maruti, “We are unable to afford them for the long term because their talent comes at a high cost.”
Nathan of Deloitte anticipates that twenty to twenty-five percent of positions will transition into gigs in the next two years. According to Mishra of CIEL, a company’s employee costs can be reduced by two to three percent by employing gig workers, which undoubtedly results in cost savings. “However, I do not intend to investigate the possibility of hiring a contract worker in order to cut expenses. I will get him because of his skilled craftsmanship or knowledge. For instance, I might have an immediate need for a specialist in artificial intelligence, but I might not have a position suitable for him to fill on a permanent basis. “At that point, I will begin searching for a seasoned professional who can join us for a predetermined amount of time, address the issue at hand, and then depart,” says Nathan.
Namrata Samson, a senior HR professional, has joined L’Oreal India for a project that will last for the next six months and will rework the company’s career advancement strategy. She explains, “Once I was finished with the project, an employee from the L’Oreal team took over and managed the execution.” “Once I was done with the project.”
Diageo takes a unique strategy toward the management of gig labor. According to Aziz, the first step the business plans to take is to implement the concept internally. He claims that he will provide his own employees with possibilities to work in cross-functional roles before looking outside. “We have developed a concept of the allocation of ability that goes beyond the structures and responsibilities of the organization. Therefore, we will make it possible for our own staff members to participate in important projects within the organization, and we will also form teams that are more adaptable and cross-functional in order to complete a variety of projects successfully. According to Aziz, “We believe that in order to create an environment in which gig workforce is successful, we need to start from the inside and make sure that it works both as a culture and a way of working.”
It is anticipated that the organization of the future will exhibit greater nimbleness and agility. However, in the process of reimagining themselves and developing blended workforces, businesses have a responsibility to ensure that they do not lose sight of their fundamental values and guiding principles. Will an independent contractor who works on a short-term project for a bank or manufacturing business have the same values as an employee who is paid by the company? The challenge at hand for HR managers and leaders is certainly one that is difficult.
