Indian Workforce Management - Challenges and Opportunities

As the world restarts the business operations, covid era has made everyone to think a common question, what next?

It can be from sourcing of raw materials to supply chain management, from sales meeting to customer interaction, from administration of premises to financial aspects, it all starts with what next..?

One area need to be taken care on priority is Human Capital, The People, who will work to solve most of the above questions and help to restart the economic cycle. 

As the possibility of remote working is becoming way forward for technology based companies, it also give raises to certain challenges and opportunities in people management, especially from Indian perspectives.

Some of them are noted below as a thought to ponder, while working towards such possibilities:   

Opportunities:

Talent Attraction – with remote working we can hire resources from any location of the country, even from the remotest part where employee can sit and start delivering the requirements.

     Retention Management – one the major reasons for exit was relocation due to family reasons. No more such reasons are required and we can retain key resources to work from their preferred job locations. 

    Happy Employees – with associates able to manage time between home needs and office work, take care of dependents at home, remote working will help them to address such topics and concentrate at work in ease.

      Fewer Events – most of the organizations were spending huge amount towards those big events and sometimes with celebrities on stage. With social distancing and crowd management, such mega events will not be allowed, same with sports and cultural activities.  

    Reduced Facilities cost and related concerns  - we will not require those big buildings with large number tables and chairs, spacious cafeterias, transportation, F&B, facilities  thus resulting in less cost towards infra and also the concerns related to it from employees.

    Better Productivity – employees might be ready to put that extra hour saved from commuting to office premises, coffee breaks taken in pantry.  Possibilities of Employees applying leaves to address personal challenges will also be reduced, thus getting more working hours every year.

   Newer Market Info – with employees based out of remote locations, they might help to gather the information on the local customer base, consumer mindset, without spending money on research data which can help in business development and employee recognitions.

    Reduced Compensation Cost – as an employer, you might get opportunity to explore untapped locations and attract talents at lesser cost compared to candidates in cities. Even candidates might agree to join at lower salary considering the cost of living and savings from being away from metropolises.

     Shorter Meetings, Webinars and Discussions -leads to better participation by resources.

Challenges:

Risk of Attrition – the way a company can hire people from anywhere, competitors can also target skilled resources, offer and pouch them. With very little information on what employees are up to, with no physical presence in office, attending video based interviews from remote locations, it should not be a surprise when people send their resignation mail.

Talent Retention – there might be employees who stayed back in an organization due to the location constraint, travel distance, especially in mega cities. Now with possibility to work anywhere and limited requirement of physical presence, the same employees will start scouting for their dream companies and roles.  There can also be situations of employees starting their own ventures in tier 2-3 cities by quitting their current jobs.

Limited Engagement - with reduced social bonding among people, the essence of engaging them through various forums and forms will be lost and isolation feeling will start impacting. Don’t forget, no more team outings.

Monotony – as the remote work kicks in, there will be monotonous of job, feeling of separated will start and organizations will need dedicated counseling help lines to support employees in their personal and professional grievances. The need to talk to someone to share their problems will increase which would have been taken care by close colleagues in office space.

Rewards and Recognition - with virtual award ceremonies, the feel of being recognized in mega events will be missed. The mailers and desktop backgrounds will have limited recalling effect. No more dinner or travel vouchers will motivate, there will be need to reward people in newer and better ways.

Advanced Planning– Managers will need to give advance notice to employees to be available in office for any purpose. In case of project exigencies, lack of people around might complicate situations and also possible business loss.

Team Management -  Managers will have huge task of ensuring fairness while treating people on remote working, roster planning and dealing with disciplinary issues.

Health Issues – the need of being in front of system for long hours, can also lead to physical and psychological stress. In long term it might lead to attrition. Addressing unhealthy lifestyle issues will become organization issues.

Amendment of various policies and laws- Policies like Accumulation or Lapse of Leaves will ask for rethink to balance between employee need and organization goals. With possibilities of employees applying for vacation reduced, there will be higher number of lapsed or accumulation, which leads to higher encashment cost during exit. Another example can be Working Hours. We need to amend such policies to suit the requirements.

With advantage and disadvantages are natural in any new spheres of life, Workforce Management will have initial challenges but will evolve along with Organization based on the experiences, feedback as it progresses over a period of time . People Managers will have to be ready to partially unlearn the current, learn and adopt to the new ways.  

Disclaimer:  None of the above points are related to any organization. This write up is based on authors understanding through discussion in various forums, reading of articles on evolving situation and experience gained in people management domain.