Continuity of Hybrid Work model and why it is beneficial.

FLEXIBLE WORK ARRANGEMENTS: A RELIC OF THE PAST OR THE ANSWER FOR THE FUTURE?[1]

?“Labour is not a commodity.”[2] We are all familiar with this aphorism which affirms the belief that individuals are more than mere objects. It suggests that paid work should be more than being able to meet one’s material needs and should also hold the space to provide fulfillment in one’s personal life. In today’s times, it translates to an individual’s need to have a work-life balance.

Unfortunately, most of the “work-life balance” discourse tends to lean towards misleading oversimplifications that only consider one element:?Time. Most people believe that limiting the number of work hours inevitably ensures balance. But the seismic shift in flexible work arrangements, which might have been the only silver lining to the pandemic, has compelled us to acknowledge another equally important element that needs to be considered to perfect the work-life balance equation:?Place. Studies have shown that conscientious individuals who identify highly with their jobs are willing and even motivated to work longer hours, provided they can work from home.[3] ?

The impact of flexible work arrangements on diversity, equity, and inclusion is undeniable. Individuals in traditional work set-ups often have had to make sacrifices while unable to juggle personal obligations and work commitments. By bridging this gap and levelling the playing field, flexible work arrangement has been a game changer for parents, caregivers, people of colour, and people with disabilities. Remote working has been instrumental in ensuring more engagement from the underrepresented groups by not only making it simpler to balance their jobs with family or personal responsibilities but also providing them a safer space away from microaggressions they tend to face in in-person interactions. Even generally, empirical evidence suggests that flexible work arrangements have helped reduce burnout, improve professional performance, and even enhance employee work-life balance.?

Despite this, several companies and firms are in the process of reversing their flexible work policies requiring employees to return to work from the office by citing reasons such as the need for collaboration, mentorship, and camaraderie. As expected, the brunt of returning to the office is felt by the minorities and the underrepresented groups at the workplace. A McKinsey report published in 2022 stated that women leaders are leaving their firms at the highest rate in years after implementation of policies reducing flexibility in their work arrangements. Similarly, one of India’s largest software firms recently reported higher attrition among women when it decided to end its remote work policy.?

Companies and firms, while facing a hiring crisis during the pandemic, had felt compelled to accommodate the wants of the workers by offering them flexibility. However, this accommodation in most places was done rather superficially by?creating?flexible work options but not allocating time and resources to?enable?the use of such . A few people in managerial positions are also reluctant to let flexible work arrangements continue as that would involve an overhaul of their current practices - requiring them to reinvent and develop new long-term hybrid processes. However, studies have consistently shown that individuals, especially the millennials and Gen Zs prefer to avoid resuming traditional work-from-office roles. This clearly depicts the mismatch between what some leaders want and what the workers want – a tussle between employers wanting to push flexible work arrangements to a thing of the past and employees demanding flexible work arrangements to be the norm.?

Resolving this is not a Herculean task, as most would make it appear to be. Does remote work not have any downsides? Yes, it does. But the advantages for both employers and employees heavily outweigh the negatives. The pros and cons can continue to be contested in the times to come. Still, all workplaces need to acknowledge that there has been a significant disruption to the traditional working arrangement. Encouraging flexibility at work should not be looked at as a stop-gap arrangement enforced during the pandemic but as the key to the future of reforming the nature and structure of employment. Instead of trying to resist these changes, it would only benefit the employers and leaders to learn to adapt and build a multi-faceted hybrid model that caters to employees by putting them in the driver’s seat of determining how to structure, pace, and balance their work and personal commitments. Granting them autonomy at work while implementing sufficient checks and balances regarding performance and efficiency metrics is a vote of confidence in their abilities. It earns their trust by empowering them, increasing employees’ intrinsic motivation sense of ownership for their work, and enhancing employee satisfaction and loyalty.?

It is also important to admit that there does not exist a perfect structure for flexible work arrangements that can be or should be, applied uniformly across all places. The first step on this transformative journey should be for the companies and firms to consider the workers’ perspectives by surveying their work arrangement preferences, needs, and motivations and providing a safe space to encourage active and open communication. Next should be to reimagine the methodology to determine and assess the workers’ productivity, efficiency, and performance while striving to move away from misconceptions that emphasize synchronous and increased face time, resulting in increased productivity and innovation. Companies should also take this chance to reevaluate if any tasks/functions are redundant and can be automated or reassigned. The teams should be trained in technology and tools that help in collaboration and coordination and it can be considered to establish certain core hours. This exercise must be undertaken based on the nature of tasks and the level of interaction required in the team.?

As we have seen time and again, innovation and productivity prosper at places which have leaders with higher emotional intelligence and who implement conscious leadership strategies. Allowing workers to maximize their potential by providing them with a degree of autonomy creates a win-win situation for both the employer and the employee.

[1] Written by Pallavi Puri, Partner and Aishwarya Gupta, Associate at DMD Advocates.

[2] International Labour Organization (ILO), Declaration Concerning the Aims and Purposes of the International Labour Organisation, May 10, 1944, available at: https://www.ilo.org/legacy/english/inwork/cb-policy-guide/declarationofPhiladelphia1944.pdf.

[3] Tammy D. Allen, Timothy D. Golder and Kristen M. Shockley, How Effective is Telecommuting?, Psychological Science in the Public Interest (Volume 16, Number 2).

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The opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and do not necessarily reflect the views of our publication. The information provided in this article is for general informational purposes only, and should not be considered as professional advice. The reader should always conduct their own research and due diligence before taking any action based on the information provided in this article.