[WORKSPACE | WORKFORCE | WORK]

The past two years have been a transformational journey in the history of mankind. It has also been a period that has witnessed disruption in the world of business, where the pandemic has impacted the pace of business transformation across sectors. Ongoing changes in the way people work have permanently transformed employees’ relationship with work, and the expectations from the same. We know that Workplace itself has been Digital for a long time, where employees across global geographies are connected virtually across offices, via technology.

The pandemic presented an opportunity to build a Digital enabled Workforce. This has had a long-term influence on Workspace & Workforce and compels employers to constantly create enhanced opportunities for productivity and innovation. The pandemic almost forced companies and their respective stakeholders to rapidly adopt new behaviors that are likely to stick.

We have been hearing about the ‘New Normal, ‘Phygital Workplace’ & ‘Hybrid Work’ for the past 2 years. When we look at the larger picture, it seems we are moving towards a future where ‘The Metaverse’ will be a very strong & essential pillar in our way of working & interacting with each other, be it at the workplace or in our personal lives. While this is a change that we may not witness immediately in 2022, we will move at an extremely fast pace towards this future reality.

The hybrid work system is topical and is here to stay, making it essential to design work around employee-driven flexibility, culture connectedness, and human leadership. The Indian economy will be adopting digital at a breakneck pace causing a series of disruptions in all directions. Navigating through the post-pandemic phase, digital transformation of workplaces has become vital and the digital tools, skills, and literacy required to make this transformation seamless and sustainable will entail a digital paradigm shift!

Maintaining flexibility in how organizations reshape the future of work, choosing a hybrid model, technology will play a crucial role in its success. Along with this, another big change is a greater emphasis on ‘Customization’ & ‘Personalization’ at each & every employee life cycle touchpoint. The needs of every individual are different & hence every problem that HR resolves has a personalized solution. This would require HR to build the mindset of a ‘Solution Architect’.

Organizations are keeping budgets for digital transformation to support the ‘Metaverse’, offering technology solutions to support higher levels of remote working, such as productivity analytics and collaboration suites that bridge the gap between people who regularly work in the office and those who work remotely.

The Pandemic has seen a large swath of employees move around the job market. They were seeking a refreshed work-life integration and making thoughtful choices based on the organization’s culture, work-life integration, additional benefits offered, and other intangible elements of the ‘Total Rewards’ framework which is beyond tangible compensation, at the core of their decision-making process. In fact, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that much of the Great Resignation is a Great Movement with employees shifting track and moving to organizations that align with their individual purpose.

This is also a period where organizations have an opportunity to redesign their Total Rewards offerings to continue their attractiveness to the current and prospective workforce. Organizations have taken this opportunity for re-optimization and re-architecture of roles, finding better ‘culture-fit’ candidates, and providing opportunities to internal talent through enhanced roles and responsibilities, while still focusing on their employer brand attractiveness.

The future of recruitment will continue to witness a war for talent. As the demand for the best skills keeps increasing day after day, companies of the future will be forced to take drastic measures to be competitive in the market.

As we advance, with a large section of our workforce working from home, there will be a huge rethink on Productivity and Performance. What exactly will be the definition of productivity? How are we going to measure it? How do we redefine the KRAs and rewards so that it is a fair and equitable reflection of their contribution to the organization?

The measurement of Productivity will change from activity to results and will have a lot of focus on corporate goals and teams rather than just individuals. We might need to explore the rollout of the OKR (Objectives and key results) framework, which will empower remote leaders and build boundaryless and fair performance tracking. Organizations must focus on business outcomes, teamwork, and collaboration. This will be a fundamental shift in this hybrid ecosystem in my mind and will bring in a culture of transparency with the scoreboard being available and accessible to everyone.