Today’s workforce & the workplace is at the crossroads of digital disruption, palpable economic crisis, demographic shift, the changing nature of work, etc. When the global coronavirus pandemic hit, it pushed the pace of change into overdrive, it is causing anxiety in the system 

Whenever we think about a future-ready workplace, we come across different thoughts 

• Digital Technologies are changing the Workplace experience 
• Technologies being used to have more collaboration, efficiency & productivity 
• Personal & Professional Life : the differentiating lines getting blurred 

With Covid cases showing a drooping trend line and we are all eager to go back to your ‘normal’ life from a ‘new normal’ one! 

On the other side, seen that internal surveys of a few Organizations showed that more than 80% of employees want to continue working flexibly after the current lockdowns were relaxed  

‘Hybrid Work place’ seems to be the best choice here. It is said that the employee will have the choice to operate from the Office for few days of the week/month rather than working fully from remote. The GWFM organizes a Panel discussion i.e. “GWFM Roundtable on Reimagine Hybrid Workplace experience and Driving the Organization’s Performance” with eminent Panelists across the Industry.

The Roundtable was moderated by season and veteran industry leader Raghu, Ex- SVP, HRD, Infosys. GWFM invited experts and WFM leaders as panelists to share their perspective, ideas, and their experiences. Distinguished panelists were Rojes V Coalbe, WFM Leader, Infosys. Radhika Narang, Director WFM, KPMG, Prashant Ved, Vice President – WFM, Accenture, Prem Singh, WFM Leader, 247/Ai, Francia Sales, Head of Contact center, Manulife and Andrew Dahms, Ex- VP HR, Johnson Controls – Hitachi Air Conditioning.

The Panelist helped us to bring up the issues faced by the Organization and how the Managers or the Employees make them work towards their benefit 

1. Social Cohesion /Interaction

Working remotely has been the cause of anxiety for many. The social Interaction and the physical exercise have been minimal while the stress was more. Keeping the emotional balance has been the Challenge. 

Hybrid Workplace can bring that ‘Digical’ i.e. ‘Digital’ + ‘Physical’ touch in a seamless manner so that the team is happier than ever. 

There are many new employees who have joined the Org. without knowing the ‘Org. Culture / Climate’. For them, it would be an opportunity to mingle with their team members & leaders 

• Evolving technology

Piggybacking on technology, we have been successful in the Remote work mode. The various Collaboration tools like Mural, Slack, Zoom platform, etc. have helped the Leaders to build Trust within their Team Members. At the same time, the various compliances issues are sorted out so that there is compromise on quality & security issues. 

The AI-driven Audit process has helped many organization

• Enablement Of Employees & Managers 

It has been seen that the employees are behaving differently working remotely. The ‘good communicator’ finds it easy to get along with the team & the workplace. For ‘not-so-good -communicator ‘employees, they felt that they are left alone. Managers need to put more focus & coach them so that they feel that they are part of the journey and eventually the productivity gets enhanced

Digital learning strategy is critical. It will help to bring the necessary ‘learning agility in the system. In this context, the following points are critical for the sustenance of the workforce and the corporates  

• Enhanced ‘customized’ Training (Self-Paced based- digital learning) has been go of the day  
• Managers need more clarity in thoughts & goals. Only then it can percolate to the employees 
• Remote working does not mean any respite to Quality Of work. Quality parameters needs to discussed , imbibed during the Scrum Calls / Review Sessions etc. 
• During this time, Individual resilience has been the utmost importance since it is directly affecting the employee’s wellbeing and the work performed  
• The Team meeting or the Townhall session, keep the employees engaged. This will act as a constant source of assurance & helps them to build / rebuild the Trust within  

        Hybrid Workplace can help in occasional Team meetings & the town Hall with the Leadership team 

• Opportunity In abundance 

Like ‘Omnichannel’ in the Supply chain management, the remote working model gives the employees to work 

• from Tier 1 or Tier 2 cities, 
• from native places, 
• from beaches & hills stations 

With the catchment area increasing, it has created more employment in the economy. It has created more infrastructure like Internet Broadband etc. The sales for Laptops, Pentabs, SmartPhone, etc. have increased during this ‘lockdown’ period 

The future workplace is evolving as we progress. It’s more than the Physical place. 

It’s all about Flexibility with Purpose. 

It’s all about the Self Driven team with a lot of ‘Growth Mindset’ & ‘Learning Agility’  

Authors: Sivaji Banerjee, WFM Leader, IBM & Dr. Shivakumar, CEO of GWFM

Take a look at the detailed roundtable on our Youtube channel:https://youtu.be/QJwkcX9LTnI

Source: GWFM Research

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