COVID-19, work and beyond 2021, What Next?

March of 2020 is when the COVID-19 hit home in India. There was one day of self-imposed curfew and life hasn’t really been the same again. And I really mean in several different ways.

How we work, how we collaborate, how we travel, our sense of personal hygiene, sense of personal space, alertness to health needs, mental wellbeing, what we eat etc.?

During this period of time, personal lives have been irrevocably changed for those who lost loved ones or family members to this pandemic. We also saw, heard or experienced acts of selfless service, support and care around us. Whether it was doctors and health workers, police and administrative personnel, your local kiranawala , ecommerce companies, essentials goods providers, other manufacturers, financial services?etc. Some of us had the luxury of working from home; there was a very large section of population which had no choice but to step out to earn a living. But in the process they were actually helping us out.

If we fast forward to now, life seems to be limping back to normalcy. People are getting back to the work place (they have been working anyways!), businesses are reporting better results, traffic is back on the road, and people are traveling for pleasure (with a vengeance!) and the list goes on. Through this period of uncertainty (since March 2020) several life lesson have been learnt; there has been some amount of unlearning and in other instances we remained the same.?

Here are my top 10 themes, where we may continue to see action by most Employers.?

1.Building a responsive organization – Most Employers have had to reconsider how they are structured to remain agile, cost competitive and responsive to their customer’s needs. This meant different things to different Employers. Some had to rationalize headcount, others looked at increasing the variability of pay (introduced ESOP/LTI more aggressively) , some looked at levels/layers within the organization (for faster decision making), some invested and adopted superior employee facing technology and yet others saw the pandemic as an opportunity to grow inorganically to access markets, skills, technology or people. We will likely see a lot of action by Employers to emerge as "learning" and highly "adaptable" organizations going forward.

2. Office as a workplace – Our belief that everyone must be physically available at one place to get work done, may no longer hold true. Both Employers and Employees have clearly learnt and understood that it is possible to deliver high quality work without being together in the same place. There are clear advantages of doing this – cost savings through reduction in real estate, access to a wide variety of talent pool being some obvious ones.

3. Challenges in engaging employees – While distributed working has distinct advantages, it comes at a cost or with challenges. How do you deliver a consistent employee experience aligned to your corporate values? How do Employees build rapport and bonding amongst them without meeting very often? Are virtual relationships really that deep? How do you not end up creating two classes of corporate citizens – ones who go to office and others??All are very important questions and will require Employers to take flexible approaches. The importance of listening to employees continuously can hardly be overemphasized.

4. Wok-life balance - With the flexibility of work from home also came along the inability to disconnect ourselves from devices and calls. Just because someone’s calendar showed free, calls could be (or were) booked! This definitely created a lot of stress. Again this topic received due attention and several employers introduced interesting measures to contain the damage. I expect that we will see more and meaningful effort in this direction over the next several months to engage Employees.

5. The Great Resignation – It may be difficult to establish a direct correlation between the COVID crisis and this phenomena, but they still seem to be connected. As Employers, we all know that The Great Resignation is very real! Through the last several months, many Employees have had the opportunity and time to reevaluate their purpose and passion and have now begun to take action. Others have been meaning to make the change for a while, but stayed put due to the ongoing uncertainty. The result is that, with the markets opening up, too many individuals are looking for suitable career opportunities, all at the same time! Employers will continue to invest time and effort in engaging Employees, but several agree that they are not sure which of their interventions will make the most impact !

6. Skyrocketing pay levels – Every conversation of mine in the recent times, with HR and business Leaders has ended up with a hot discussion about the jump in pay levels. Most candidates they are speaking with are attending multiple interviews or already hold an offer and expect the same to be bettered. This problem is very acute in the case of technology talent. Due to the steep demand at the Employer end, most are willing to loosen purse strings, to bring the ‘right’ people on board. However, there is also a consensus that this ‘mad rush’ cannot continue. It’s a matter of time, before Employers will look at the cost and other parameters and will take corrective steps.

7. Inclusion & diversity – Since the time, when work moved from office to home, it is true that Employers were able to access a wider set of talent. At the same time participation of several talent groups was under severe pressure. So many women had to give up their jobs (or lost them) because they needed more flexibility to manage home, children and other responsibilities. It was the most unfortunate thing to happen. Workplace diversity challenges (in several employment sectors) have only become more acute since the COVID-19 crisis hit us. Employers are consciously and regularly monitoring their progress against identified objectives, to ensure a more equitable workplace.

8. Employee safety became a primary concern for all Employers irrespective of their size and evolution journey. Large corporations to startups have called out clearly that they have and will continue to support vaccination programs and encourage everyone in their ecosystems to get vaccinated. They are preparing their workplaces (if returning to office) to meet the needs of distancing and hygiene. Preventive health checks, enhanced insurance cover, appropriate support and advisory for domestic and international travel, access to doctors, nutritionists, financial support are just some of the other measures adopted by Employers.

9. Mental wellbeing became a central topic of attention, discussion and action. Whether in individual capacity or at the workplace, everyone across walks of life acknowledged the importance and took some action. Employers have offered thoughtful and innovative support frameworks to ensure that Employees don’t burn out – mentally and physically. Amidst the challenges of COVID, the silver lining was that several Leaders (and other employees) openly came forward to talk about the issues they were dealing with. This helped to take out the stigma associated with mental wellbeing.?EAP (or Employee Assistance Programs) are now better understood and not thought to be as some financial assistance program!

10. Revamping Employee Benefits – The pandemic has presented a great opportunity to many Employers to reassess their Employee Benefits portfolios. As Employers now access multiple and diverse set of talent, they may want to revisit their benefits portfolio to ensure that they are relevant, contemporary and deliver according to the value system and philosophy of the Employer. Now is an opportunity for the HR/Benefits Leader to wear the marketing hat and understand the ‘consumer’ in the Employee and deliver a tailored offering!

Perhaps it would be fair to say that many of these 10 areas were already getting the due Employer attention. The current crisis however, has certainly and permanently changed the pace and perspectives around the topics. I think the biggest theme that has emerged is -"CHANGE"

In summary, it can only be said that both Employers and Employees will have to embrace change and at a rapid pace. We will also have to come to terms with rapidly fluctuating demands from customers and clients, which will further add to the pressure to remain agile and responsive. And I have no doubt in my mind that together we will come out stronger from this crisis.

Bring it on Omicron! ?