Are you "Working From Home"?

"Its not about ideas, it about making ideas happen"

Acquiring talent, winning them, giving them best experience, training them, retaining and helping them grow; is current life-cycle of an employee.

Future of delighting and retaining employees is evolving towards “simple model to look at and same model becomes complex when tried understanding”. Simple because the demand is less in quantity like (good pay, flexibility work, job security) and complex because achieving all three might be extremely exhaustive for organizations.

All three above demands are knitted together I feel, below explains the same. 

Two school of thoughts;

1. Supporting work from home for increased efficiency followed by decreasing cost of employees being a new cost saving methodology for employers.
2. Interrogating work from home for risk involved in loss of revenue due to underperformance, when employees WFH.

Well! One’s at shops, factories, warehouses, mills, fields or any similar space might not have a joy of doing WFH, but many of us who may have that joy here, can at least think about it to start with. 

WFH is not a plug and play instrument thus definitely rests upon an individual’s personality type and working style. After all each individual is different… 

While individual X might be comfortable working from home besides new colleagues as mixer grinders, washing machines, lawn movers, noisy pets or kids and still be able to perform, leaving back office gossip, desk bumping halts, coffee machines and more. Whereas, "Y" might not resist away from TV, music, visitors, power naps, long breaks and also miss on important email/ping due to sudden changed working mode, and has performed only when supervised, "Y" primarily prefers working from office. 

While people continue banging heads against wall, did we realize, people born after year 1995 (Generation Z) have already graduated from school are already in jobs or about to pick jobs. Furthermore, Gen Z believes in being more liberal, talk about work life balance, flexible working options, love for nature and so much more. They will be positioned in good spots in an organizational hierarchy within next 5 to 10 years and some of them might have very fast track career which would make them even stronger and experienced to influence the organization’s management to turn the ship’s wheel towards WFH.

And even prior to it “the millennials” born between 1981 - 1995 have a mixed thought on WFH and are adjustable to almost everything around them, also prefers working from home if given an option. How about females who might have location/commuting constraints after a short gap in career, will they not love an organization for WFH? Think about specially abled, who are already employed and can skip commuting to do WFH, will they not praise an employer’s generosity?

To WFH, will not a small population, from crowded cities shift towards nearby urban areas or native villages? Imagine the pressure cities would be relieved of when something similar happens. Will the re-investment in urbans/villages not increase due to returning natives with a firm source of income?

Personally feel it would be a win-win situation for both employers and employees and the micro economy at large. Especially ones with IT, Customer Service, Administration, Sales, Education & Training, Accounting & Finance, Consulting will have that scope of WFH with help of technology.

Advantages:

1. Relief from daily commute hangovers
2. Dedication of more focused time to work and sometimes spending extra time at work, since it minuses commuting.
3. Corporates reduce cost on infrastructure and it’s maintenance including cost incurred in providing transport to employees, subsidized meals, stationery etc.
4. Remote working options opens a huge spectrum of talent, thus diminishing talent crunch issues.
5. Lessened sick leaves
6. Affects attrition positively
7. Pollution gets curtailed with less traffic on roads, parking space at office can be utilized as garden.
8. Redevelopment for area which faced migrations issue due to less employability

Disadvantages:

1. Information security and data privacy, biggest concern.
2. Team cohesiveness and innovation by brainstorming might impact.
3. Sitting with the team improves communication, collaboration and bonding, might get affected.
4. For leadership, one might have to get glued to digitals gadgets placed next to bed even when asleep, just to keep the projects rolling.
5. Some also fear, it would be more nosey with family lifestyle
6. Isolation resulting in fear of non-performance followed by depression

But how does a company start with giving employees “WFH” in order to keep abreast in talent retention race: For employees, who have shown sufficient ownership and accountability (top-performers) can be given option for pilot “rotational basis work from home”. With only intent of studying results for pilot and taking appropriate steps. This will also motivate an average or non-performer to perform and take benefit of WFH which further resulting in more backfills for rotation thereafter.

Right culture and expectations for WFH is as necessary as oxygen to life, otherwise both might collapse. WFH should be an option and not a compulsion. In parallel, employers may also reserves rights to ensure current delivery and non-damage of revenue while they try WFH. Thus more than revenue, margins are important; just like an overweight individual might easily collapse in a marathon. By overweight, I refer to infrastructure cost & maintenance and discontented and fatigued employee. Even if the employer has sufficient budget for “Infrastructure and employee engagement”, they can still save some of it and reinvest a fraction of saved, in employees reskilling/upscaling.

Preparing for future is not a hazard, while not preparing, might me. The word “horror” should stay obsolete for corporate. Yes, it might be horror for few employers initially.

"Work from home is now here to last whether a company hugs it or not".

If you think differently, please voice it out, would love hear views.

Disclaimer: The above write-up is solely my personal view and is not encouraged/instigated/influenced by any individual/body/organization and it does not intend to market or unbrand of any esteemed organization/individual.