- The author of this article is Dr. R.B. Smarta, CMD-Interlink, Vice President (HADSA)
Being a chairperson of Interlink , as an organization, I have experienced a lot many new things right from the time when I first stayed in my house on working day during mid-march last year, to today’s date where I hardly visit my office (may be once in a week !!) but still generating similar (or more) revenue … Pandemic-induced work-from home was truly challenging in the first whole month, however, as we all know, resilience is the key to success, our entire organization started working remotely and hence, more efficiently.
I never imagined that I could appoint talent in my organization without even meeting them personally, however I did it. As everybody was comfortable with working from home, I had no preferences about where the candidate is from. Eventually, I also generated better confidence in new generation talent as at the back of the mind I was convinced about the growing techno savvy generation in today’s scenario which are not only talented but also ambitious.
However, let me say that, what is likely to be missed in building culture in the organization is purpose of personal-social interactions, client interactions and learning in groups so that organization creates a meaningful team to work with.
This we need to look at more diligently at this stage of developing future work.
Having said that, in my opinion, disruption is the key to evolution. Today’s world, after pandemic, has become a way better place to live as people are getting strengthened, knowing their true potential, and becoming innovative in every possible aspect. Likewise, organizations are increasingly accepting new cultures of work, and it’s a need of the hour. In order to facilitate future-ready organization, we need to think through following four specifications to make this effective-
• Effective role distribution
During role distribution, we must think of enhancing, empowering and allowing to stimulate the role holder by making it effective. An organization with high impact performance is based on adequate distribution of employees in workplace according to their qualities and tasks assigned. Hybrid models may face certain challenges in terms of role distribution based on the varying interaction of employees at workplace in hybrid working. This requires special attention and interventions in order to boost work circulation, effectiveness and productivity.
• Future-perspective toward the new normal working
While adapting hybrid working model, future-oriented understanding is necessary. Not all business models can remain as productive and efficient as they used to be in their traditional way of working. Working strategy should be designed in such a way so that organization will remain future ready in all possible circumstances.
• Efficiently developing people with new culture
People are at the centre of everything, good to know that hybrid models are also people-centric at considerable extent. Developing people cannot be considered inferior at any cost and same applies in hybrid models where interactions will no longer remain traditional and hence the talent development can be a challenge which need to be addressed even before adapting new work culture.
• Creating technologically savvy work processes and systems
Technology remains superior while transforming working cultures. As said earlier, for future ready organization, several aspects of businesses need to be worked out differently, technological aspects hold foremost position in today’s scenario.
Different types of hybrid working models proposed by various organizations during COVID and even before the COVID scenario are- Half-staff on-site & half at home working remotely or full staff working on-site for part of the week and remotely part of the week or a combo of both. Owing to the flexibility offered by such working models, employees are becoming more and more adaptable toward them. Following are few of the reasons responsible for this better adaptability-
New generation’s point of view toward hybrid working model-
1. A great work-life balance (which is essential nowadays)
Flexibility in working allows employees to work while balancing their day-to-day personal tasks. Hybrid remote model offers this flexibility which is one of the most attractive aspect of this model owing to which employees giving priority to it over traditional ways of working.
Controlling work schedules is way easier in hybrid model.
2. Safety advantage
During pandemic, health safety has gained immense importance. Hybrid working model keeps the chances of infection far away as employees have minimum to zero exposure to infections as either they are working remotely or they have lesser staff on-site.
In addition to health safety, women’s security matters a lot when the working hours are late in the night. This issue can also be resolved with hybrid model.
3. High-yielding and sustainable performance
In Mumbai, where local train is literally a torture on peak hours, travelling becomes a nightmare for most of the office-going public.
Hybrid working model minimizes the intensity of this stress to the noticeable level. With this, employees have flexibility to complete their tasks, remain productive and become more productive as they progress with the task and gain confidence. Such performance is much sustainable.
Hybrid working models are here to stay
Hybrid working model is essential to sustain our business in today’s competitive scenario. Talent nowadays is skilled and knowledgeable, traditional working model would be always a second option for today’s generation as number of multinational companies operating in India have employed hybrid working style well before the pandemic. And as pandemic closed all the corporates, companies are also exploring their true potential in terms of hybrid working which is creating a competitive edge in the market. As hybrid working offers several advantages to employers including saving on real estate expenses, hiring talent across the globe, improved employer-employee trust, increased visibility into employee performance making things appropriate, profitable and fruitful for an organization.
