What speaking to over 500 people in 2021 has taught me? Part I

No I won't give the usual gyaan.

I did not reach any kind of enlightened state. I did not build a Unicorn. I did not even do anything physically amazing--like climb Mt. Everest or run from Delhi to Kanyakumari in 10 days. Sigh!

I just survived. This year that's my biggest accomplishment.

And along the way I (actually we) talked to a lot of people. A lot.

Of the over 500 people we spoke with, most were foot soldiers within large firms. But to round off our research, we also spoke to at least 50-60 very senior HR and Business Leaders to understand their thinking.

We asked them about their own individual experiences, and we asked them about their thoughts around the future.

Along the way, we learnt a few things.

1. 2021 is the year organizations have embraced their gentler, more compassionate selves.

Leaders across organizations, at all levels—have unhesitatingly embraced their gentler and compassionate selves as they navigated through the pandemic and the deadly second wave.

Every organization has its own stories of incredible heroism. And heroes have emerged from all corners of the organization. From HR leaders who have stayed up through the night making urgent phone calls—trying to find a hospital bed; to managers who have tracked the wellbeing of their team and their families—each week. This year we have seen incredible displays of compassion and caring.

This expression of compassion has, at least in some organizations, had an impact on the kind of leadership on display even after the second wave receded.

Managers have tracked and cared about the health of their team members. Mental health has entered mainstream HR conversations. And, well-being has entered the C-suite lexicon.

(For instance, just a weeks ago, a partner at a leading PE firm spoke to me about the need for better mental health within their office. And whether we could help.)

?So this has been a year when leaders have embraced a far more caring side of themselves.

A big shift in a country where mental health has never been taken seriously.

And then there are other changes.

2.????Many employees who have moved back to their hometowns during the pandemic--do not want to come back to the big cities. Now to be honest--some of this was a surprise to me. I realise many of us who have grown up in the relatively impersonal metros--have not quite understood the strength of the family and social communities in smaller towns.

While for so many professionals like me--it's mostly been about going wherever work has been rewarding. I now see that these have been difficult calls for many who have felt outsiders in big cities.

To be honest, for some of us, having family in a big city has been a privilege that we have even taken for granted.

Yet for many who have grown up in smaller towns, family and community hold a very special place. While they had located to a big city for work, they have re-discovered the joys of being close to their parents and families.

In fact when asked what people have enjoyed most about working from home, several people spoke about the joy of celebrating holidays with their extended families or with 'their communities'. Still others spoke about how glad they were that their kids were experiencing some of their own cultural roots.

It reminded me a bit of the kind of homesickness many of us have experienced when we moved to other countries. The pull for home is strong.

Add to that, the fact that there are also some very tangible economic benefits to working from your family home. Like the ease of looking after younger children; the sometimes larger or more comfortable homes; or the fact that many could save an extra 20-25% of their salaries without rent.

While many of those who have returned back to their home towns may eventually move back to a bigger city for work. At the moment, they are feeling ‘at home’.

3.????The Hybrid Paradox is Real. Some months ago, Satya Nadella spoke about the ‘hybrid paradox’. The phenomenon of missing the social interactions at work while also not wanting to go back to work full time…

Well, this matches our findings.

There is no doubt that staying at home has been good in some ways but also dull in other ways. People spoke about "how refreshing it used to be to speak to people in the cafeteria". How simply meeting work colleagues "allowed them to forget about any troubles in their lives".

So people have really missed other people. And yet--they don't really want to come back to work in the same way either. When asked how often they would need to meet in person to maintain relationships, there was a very wide spread of answers. While some spoke about their need to meet people once or twice a week, those working in geographically dispersed teams felt it would be okay if they met once a quarter.

And people are quite divided on this. At junior levels we find that far more than half, perhaps even closer to 70% are looking for flexible working. At senior levels this drops down to perhaps about 30%-40%

This kind of makes sense when you think about it. After all, senior people have worked in office far longer and are more comfortable leading teams in person. They also recognise how much harder leading virtual teams is, and what the downsides to remote work are.

Plus, senior people are also likelier to have smoother and more comfortable commutes.

4.????Senior people are (at least a bit, and more likely quite a bit) out of touch with changing expectations among those more junior.

Business and HR leaders are yet to catch up to the number of ways in which employee expectations have shifted.

While many have read articles on changes in employee expectations, they don’t really see this as an India phenomenon. Nor do they feel this is true of people within their organization.

While I am sure this is a comforting thought for many, it does leave me rather uneasy about how this will impact the choices they make about the future workplace within the organization.

Could the desire for the familiar be coming in the way of building something new?

Hmm… let’s see.

?In Part II of this series I will speak about the major waves driving ‘the great resignation’ in India, and what this may mean for the years to come.

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(About me: I lead Unqbe, a research and advisory firm around the Future of Work. We partner with clients to help them understand change through commissioned research. And we help leadership teams build Workplace 2.0 with a current focus on re-building social capital; designing the hybrid workplace; and introducing a future-friendly inclusive leadership style)