WFH is not just an "IT Problem" any more

Two weeks back, While I was talking to one my HR friend in IT industry, I casually asked him about the recruitment scenario and impact on it post Covid. He replied, "its very difficult to get people right now and demand supply gap has become astronomically higher". Considering corona time and changing business eco system, when most of companies across the world are expected to invest heavily in digital, I thought its a obvious short term trend but he paused me before I could make an opinion and said, of course, "digital demands have gone up but that's not the only problem". His thoughts were intriguing and prompted me to provoke him further. I thought, being an HR person and closely interacting with many potential candidates on regular basis would have definitely given him different perspective to the problem. He said, "root cause is WFH" . "This new way of working has widened the horizon of opportunity for candidates." Earlier, when we were seeking candidates, in 80-90% of the cases, they would be either from surrounding areas or having some roots to the city. The attractiveness of Tier 1 city with more career opportunities, better health and education infrastructure and broader spectrum of engaging lifestyle use to play a big role. But now being in remote place is considered no longer a problem and companies are offering candidates many options. They are offering financial incentive to setup office space, flexible timings and task based deliveries goals. Quite a few employees have happily gone back to their native places and more than happy to stay back.

This prompted me to conduct a quick questionnaire based survey using LinkedIn social media power. I ran it for two weeks and surprisingly this reached out to many people without much of effort. That's the power of social media. Till today, which is the last day, the stats shows, there were close to 37000 views, and nearly 1350 votes . I googled to check if it would be statistically correct to interpret the mood of 6-7 million IT professional based on this sample size and Google said absolutely fine :) . Its better than the sample size of exit polls, by which news channels make a hell lot of money.

On top , there were very interesting comments in the chat box. Some of them, reached to me with personal thoughts as well. This has embolden me to say "WFH is no longer just an IT Problem".

A year back when world suddenly was in grip of pandemic , IT guys were struggling round the clock to set things right so that employees can work from home and operate business seamlessly. Also, create solutions so that customers continue to get their services virtually in physical manner. Cyber security was the biggest problem discussed at the highest level. More and more needs of Cloud adoption, collaboration platforms, Higher bandwidths, VPN, VDI was making the IT service desk go mad. E-commerce, digital touch points and data analytics were the next business strategy.

The topic still continue to be in vogue but IT fraternity has taken long strides in last one year and multiple plans are already in place to tackle this. The uneasiness created a lot of opportunity to learn, innovate and many have started thriving in this. In fact, problem and threat has translated into big IT opportunities. There are hardly a few items left which cannot be addressed technologically for remote working and touchless services. However, the problem has taken a right shift and now it has become imperative to think in different dimension altogether.

There were interesting outcomes of the survey. Half of the respondent are happy being in remote tier 2 /3 cities and does not want to come back in normal working. Who would have thought of this number a year back when whole generation was flocking to big cities for greener pastures. Out of remaining votes, half of them only want to come back for 30% of the time. A whopping 90% either doesn't want to come to office or want to work in hybrid model. I was tracking the percentage pattern almost every day and surprisingly it has remain consistent even after more no people joining the poll.

What could be the potential reason?

• Indians still are deeply rooted to joint family and prefer being close to relative and friends or at least in small closed cluster. Still the biggest entertainment in the country is to be with friend and relatives. Potentially a reason why 47% of workforce wants to be back to smaller towns or native places. Zomato and Netflix is there to compensate for the theaters and restaurants if the company is available. There are more option on Amazon and flipcart then on street stores.
• Corporate environment has become so rotten or repulsive, that everyone wants to earn but being physically away from work place. This is apparently felt less stressful. One of the reason is new generation doesn't want to socially interact physically but more using social media platform. An indirect interpretation has been construed based on feedback that maximum no of person wants not to come back to office.
• The hustle bustle of tier 1 cities, pollution, travelling time is a big negative factor and if alternate options of good career are available, other glitters of big cities may not be strong enough to attract people. Perhaps, they looking for smaller, closer, isolated, nature friendly destinations.
• Being physically present together to complete work could be a myth and same productivity can be achieved by virtual working as well. This is indirectly interpreted as people feel they can work even without being in office. However, engagement could be a question mark and needs to be assessed with different survey.
• Traditionally, Female population was at disadvantage due to social system in India. But WFH has hugely benefited them and has given immense opportunity to pursue a good career. (though my survey doesn't have direct data, and this inference mostly based on comments and direct replies).

what does it mean?

Threat : This could a big threat to the organizations who wish to get back employees and start working like earlier normal. Worry is, longer the pandemic, bigger would be resistance getting built in. The enabling technology would be moving fast to create alternate system. Secondly, attracting right talent will be a battle with those organization who are offering hybrid model or willing to allow satellite teams working in tier2/3 cities.

Challenge : WFH is going to create a huge challenge on HR policies, employee engagement, social fabric, alignment to vision and strategy . There is a much bigger challenge in people management now than ever in the history of mankind. This could be an absolute biggest innovation area and next few years could potentially see new theories emerging. The employee productivity paradigm could see a tectonic shift (in the way it is measured and perceived). There could be special challenge for managing the employee fatigue, mental heath and engagement in new scenario.

Opportunity: every stakeholder has an opportunity to capitalize on this dynamics

Government: huge opportunity to develop clusters in tier 2/3 cities. It doesn’t need to attract companies now but just create a good city planning and basic amenity in these cities to keep those who had left them.

Organizations: There is much larger pool of talent available especially the 50% of population which was not integrated due to social issues. They can look much beyond the office city boundry and attract talent. Obvious is opportunity of high reduction in the overheads. On top, business opportunities likely to expand.

New Business: very conducive to start-ups for whom infra and talent was biggest impediments. Alternate business potential of creating cluster employee facilities in remote area. 

Society: Society can gain heavily by distribution of money in so called backward areas. This can help in overall growth of infrastructure, forward looking mind set and balanced growth. The areas which have been left behind in the mad rush of growth could also be getting some benefits.

Environment and natural resources: there is extreme load on consumption of natural resources in few cities. The concentration is so high that environmental balance is falling fast. This could be minimized by re-distribution in consumption pattern and potentially a realisation of conserving nature by most.

There are plenty of problems but even bigger opportunity in the era when whole of the country is struggling with oxygen , medicines, vaccines.

Stay Safe, get vaccinated at first opportunity. It might be too early to interpret and predict but definitely a new work life is emerging and posing lot of opportunities to various constituencies. Some part of already seen change is bound to continue in long term.

Disclaimer : The views expressed are purely personal and has no linkage to any organization or groups.