What Will the Workplace Look Like in 2025?, and India’s Startups Are Showing How to Get Remote Working Right

Theresa Agovino, writing for SHRM, forecasts major trends that will reverberate through companies until 2025:

1.?????More employees choosing a hybridized work lifestyle – with more inclination to personal space and autonomy in remote work, employers are adjusting to allow their workforce to operate remotely, henceforward.

2.?????Companies will invest heavily in health, hygiene and safety – According to a McKinsey report, 83% business executives say that they expect to hire more health and safety professionals within the next two years.

3.?????Companies will continue striving to increase diversity, equity and inclusion – White men occupy 66% of C-suite position; men of color occupy 12%. In October, Starbucks said part of its executives’ pay would be based on their ability to build inclusive and diverse teams.

4.?????Workers will demand better treatment for themselves and their communities from their employers – Scores of workers from Target, Amazon, McDonald’s, and numerous hospitals, staged strikes to protest against unsafe working conditions in the pandemic.

5.?????Organizations will re-examine how they impact the environment – A Harvard University study found that an increase to air pollution is directly proportional to the increase in COVID-19-related death rates; recruitment of Chief Sustainability Officers will become vital.

Read Full Article at SHRM >>

“India’s Startups Are Showing How to Get Remote Working Right”

India’s startup ecosystem could be spearheading a transformation with easier work culture and better employee policies.

IndiaMART announced its move to a weekly salary disbursal regime – the first Indian company to do so. Similarly, Meesho announced a “Boundaryless Workplace” model, allowing work from anywhere.

Startups are increasingly considered as drivers of economic growth, as they create jobs – 660,000 directly, and 3.4 million indirectly in 2021, out of which 70% were enabled by e-commerce, mobility, and food delivery platforms.

With the adjustment to work-from-home model, Indian tech companies are asking employees to return to office, causing anxieties of longer working hours, travel time, stress of transitioning back, anticipating burnout.

The Great Resignation attests to the mushrooming of startups. TCS’s attrition rate rose to 15.3% in the December quarter; Infosys seeing a 25.5% rate.

Emerging story here >>

Wellbeing has seeped into day-to-day conversation, especially since the pandemic. So much of our social communication begins and ends with good wishes for the other’s health and happiness – things like “I hope you are keeping well”, “Here’s wishing you well”, and so on.?But what does it really?mean?to “be well”?

The textbook definition of wellbeing from the World Health Organization is 'a state of complete physical, mental and social well being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity'. This indicates a sense of growth and a positive state of being.

What is wellbeing?

Wellbeing is a multidimensional concept that applies both to physical and mental health and functioning. As the WHO definition says, it’s not about the mere absence of diseases or conditions. It’s about how often you fall sick, how well you recover from an ailment, and how you cope with and respond to the challenges you face.

In the emotional health context, your wellbeing is determined by things like whether you have a positive or negative outlook, how well are you able to cope with psychological stressors, how often you experience positive emotions and mood and your emotional wellbeing reflects how you think and feel about ourselves.

Also, since humans are social animals, our social wellbeing – how close we feel to the community and whether we feel accepted by society – are also critical. This can also be determined by how much our personal values, beliefs, lifestyles and traditions align with the existing social framework. The freedom we have to share and communicate our ideas, develop and sustain meaningful relationships with others may determine social wellbeing. The feeling of contributing to the society/community can also create a sense of social wellbeing.

Also read:?Dealing With an Emotional Breakdown at Work

How to find out my state of wellbeing

Check the below list and see how many of these statements you agree with.

• Have you been feeling pessimistic about the future?
• Are there frequent times where you don't feel good about yourself?
• Do you occasionally feel your heart racing, your chest tightening, knots in the stomach or feelings of restlessness?
• Are you unable to enjoy simply being in the moment?
• Do you feel like you are not useful or that you are not contributing to something significant?

Find your state of wellbeing

• Do you constantly find yourself feeling worked up or ‘on the edge’?
• Do you find yourself disconnected with the people you used to feel close to?
• Have you been feeling low on energy?
• Do you find yourself not coping well?
• Have you been feeling less confident or experiencing poor self-worth?
• Do you feel unloved or unrecognised?
• Haven’t felt cheerful in a while?

If you agreed with most of the above statements, then you might need to work on your wellbeing.

Try Manah's?free emotional wellbeing assessment ?now!

And if you have not yet gotten your copy of the Return to Work Checklist for Emotionally Healthy Workplaces, head over to?manahwellness.com ?and get your copy today!

Till next week, take care!

Ashwin

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Ashwin Naik is the co-founder of Manah Wellness

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