Metamorphosis At Unprecedented Pace

While thousands of COVID-19 cases are increasing each day, states are beginning to lift their respective shelter-in-place orders, and schools are reopening, the leaders across the gamut are coming together to set the templates for tomorrow’s workforce: a careful balance between large-scale remote work and a wholly reimagined economic framework. We are now looking at some key tectonic shifts that are forcing organizations and leaders to change their short term and long term tactics towards workforce, workplace and work itself. This time in which we live is an opportune momemt to break free from the intertia of the past; to dispense with the old customs, structures, and hirerchy.

Digital Skills: The Shift From Desired to Prerequisite: The shift to digital skills is widely analyzed, written and discussed RaviKumar, 2020. Given the longevity of C-19’s impact on the economy, it is clear is in this new reality the digital divide is over. The writing is on the wall - digital workforce is a requisite to survival and not a mere good to have option. We now need to reflect and assess how to ensure that: 

• The existing investments are geared towards C-19 response in fields of education and workforce development
• Digital skill-building efforts are entwined with upskilling efforts at state and at community levels
• Organizations are continually ramping up efforts to shift to high-demand digital skills
• Employees are receiving an on-demand, easy to consume micro learning environment

It is very clear that organizations and leaders who are able to foster partnership’s, while achieving a balance between protecting and running business, will evade annihilation and succeed during and after the pandemic.

Empathetic Leadership : Shift From Dominant Hierarchical Leadership: While employees do look for someone to provide guidance in these uncertain times, what they require more than a reporting structure, is a support structure from their organization. In an unprecedented pandemic situation, which has not been faced by most people that are currently active in the workforce, the need for an emotional connect and empathy from your manager takes precedence over any other need that an employee may have.

While tough decisions have to be made, it is how they are made and executed, that makes all the difference. A great example of this is the letter written by Brian Chesky of Airbnb to his employees announcing layoffs. He goes over what the situation is, what considerations will be needed, what rules were set, and what happens next for the laid off employees in great detail. A thoughtful gesture, such as letting employees retain their MacBooks even when they are being laid off, exemplifies the  abundance of empathy, care, and clarity even in the dark times.

An article published in McKinsey (Gemma D'Auria and Aaron De Smet, 2020) describes a suggested approach to developing an empathetic leadership model.

This pandemic is a call to all leaders to lead with empathy and remember that people may not always recollect what you said and did but they will never forget how you made them feel.

Efficient Hybrid Model: Shift From Large Office Spaces: The notion of having hundred or even thousands employees working from one building seems to now be a thing of past. Despite challenges with security concerns, infrastructure and productivity measurement as a culture, this phenomenon of remote working will grow to set new standards and the next decade will be a testimony of all the combined wisdom we are acquiring now.            

Organizations have shown that they can quickly enable their employees to work from home. Companies like Infosys, ordered massive numbers of laptops for users that traditionally used desktops, not only that, while they waited on the Laptops to arrive, they went ahead and ensured that the desktops are moved from office spaces to people’s homes to enable them to work remotely. Secured network infrastructure was quadrupled overnight enabling users to BYOD while ensuring that there are no security lapses with remote working. All this is a testament to what can be achieved when the true need arises.

We now need to consider how the workforce will come back to the workplace. A hybrid model that balances remote working with workplace presence is the need of the hour. The future readiness of organizations and its workforce will hinge on ground-breaking solutions that can be mounted rapidly to scale, are adept to absorbing shocks, and enable a resilient workforce with leaders who will nurture this resilience.