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Infusing ‘Employee Centricity’ at the Core of ‘Work-from-Anywhere’ Model
Infusing ‘Employee Centricity’ at the Core of ‘Work-from-Anywhere’ Model

April 22, 2021

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‘Work-from-Anywhere’ (WFA) model as the ‘new normal’

Indian IT industry has evolved through the maturity path of offshoring model in last two decades. Enduring unprecedented pandemic crisis, the industry has further innovated the model with a hybrid operating structure - distributed ‘Work-from-Anywhere’ model. With rapid adoption of digital tools, remote working models have enabled uninterrupted business functioning with improved measures of productivity and team collaboration. It has also smoothened employees’ anxieties about personal health and safety, besides saving from routine commute hassles. With varied experiences gained in last one year, some of employees find remote working models quite liberating and prefer working remotely on permanent basis. Few others consider to return their in-office model again after the pandemic, which helps with creative collaboration and social interaction opportunities.

Amidst surging waves and localized restrictions, there is hardly any sign of pandemic situation waning out and majority of workers feel concerned about returning to the office any time soon. Some of global surveys indicate that most of employees expect continuity of remote work environment or hybrid work environment in long-term, even after pandemic situation improves.

Long term sustainability of WFA model

WFA model not just becomes a de facto choice in prevailing situation but also sets the contours of ‘Future of Work’. While the companies have been formulating organizational approach and structural alignment towards hybrid work models, its long-term effect on employees’ wellbeing and motivation level require serious evaluation. Aside overemphasized logistical efficacy and improved work productivity in digitized workplace from organizational lenses, its unfavorable impact on employees’ wellbeing remains understated. It is a well-established fact now that employees’ health and mental wellbeing get severely affected from physical and emotional strains of digital workspace. Several global studies indicate that employees end up spending longer workhours in remote workspace – exposed to an uncomfortable ergonomic position and stress levels than in-office workplace. Few softer nuances of the digital workspace – e.g. loss of personal space, missing coworkers interactions, fading influence on work decisions and more importantly blurring career path, all taken together creates a difficult employee experience and lowered self-fulfillment.

Embedding deep moorings of Employee-Centricity

Against this backdrop, the long-term sustainability of hyped ‘new normal’ and ‘WFA model’ brings many questions in employees’ minds, even if basic fulfillment of legal and social obligations on part of the employers are not insisted strictly. While framing forward-looking work models, a realistic orientation of organizational purpose and employee-sensitive workplace policies become critical requisites. With little organizational representation or recourse available to employees for addressing fundamental issues, it requires urgent measures to infuse basic essence of employee-centricity in evolving models of workspace.

  • Unrealistic assumptions about work-conducive space and logistics: WFA model presumes that all employees are having easy availability of work-conducive physical space, sufficient logistical means (reliable broadband, power supply etc.) and work infrastructure at remote surroundings. It unfairly places employees at hinterland locations, with limited economic resources background, or having family obligations. Adding extra stress, it requires employees to sacrifice their personal space and responsibilities to maintain mechanical focus on work expectations all the times.
  • Digital surveillance and low trust: While employers have obligations to ensure data security, privacy and other compliance requirements, some organizations have gone overboard on applying digital monitoring of employees. Falling on the borderlines of legitimate reasons, less transparent measures – e.g. location tagging, screen / keystroke monitoring or digital tracking of logged workhours create a situation of low trust for the employees, besides disregarding their privacy and personal space concerns.
  • Controlled top-down mode festering less equitability: Employees’ sense of empowerment and ownership is significantly curtailed in centralized affairs of remote models. Explicitly aimed to enhance work efficiency, top-down mode of decision making leads to marginalization of employees –particularly for juniors, with personal constraints or rejoining after maternity/long leaves. With little space for individual opinions, it brings extra pressure on employees to remain always aligned to the manager or face a danger of sidelining.
  • Extended and strenuous workhours: With completely blurred lines of work and personal space, work occupies all available time and mental space in remote working. It practically becomes hard to switch off the work and shift to personal responsibilities or even a basic recess during extended workhours. Unrealistic expectations to visibly exhibit performance (‘always available on call’ in multi-time zone work setting) cause persisting burnout with little recourse to employees.
  • Missing direct exposure of client environment: Employee motivation of gaining an onsite opportunity with direct exposure in client business environment, associated monetary benefits and socio-cultural experience fueled the growth of offshoring model in last two decades. With digital workspace almost shutting this opportunity, motivation level of junior and mid-level employees gets significantly affected in remote roles, which limits enriching of experience profile with client-centric contextual knowledge.
  • Unclear performance measures and career path: New workspace drastically alters performance expectations and emphasizes on visible performance metrics. Discounting individual productivity and business acumen, quantitative metrics get promoted over qualitative aspects. In hybrid work mode, it overtly rewards employees for merely being present in-office, while remote employees struggle to get attention of the manager. Ambiguous mechanism for recognition of individual contributions creates an uneven situation for employees’ role progression, key assignment, performance incentives or promotion considerations.

Extraordinary times demand equally extraordinary responses from the organizations, guided with a genuine sense of concern and unwavering intent of ‘Employee Centricity’. A complete shift away from PR-fed ambivalent pronouncements and pretentions would make a visible difference in regaining employees’ trust and commitment. It is the time that organizational models earnestly promote an inclusive character and candid cultural mores in workspace – how so far challenging ground realities could be in prevailing times and the emerging period ahead.        

 

Disclaimer: The author is an employee of Tata Consultancy Services Limited (TCS). The opinions expressed herein are of author’s own and do not reflect those of the company.

Image source: flexjobs.com with due acknowledgement to copyrights.


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Indra Chourasia

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