Leading industry experts have stated that Work From Home (WFH) is the ‘nectar’ that the pandemic has been yielding and that has been growing and also speeding down as an implementation path that ensures profit, with minimal loss and focusses on people centricity. The corporates have been loving the cost savings, however, when seen deeply, it would be seen that remote working is actually a double-edged sword that has to be handled with care, also generating ample savings for employees.
By implementing Work From Home, it also has to be ensured that data-driven weighing of costs and benefits are in place. It has to be noted that there has to be an equivalent level of discussion on the people front, as people are seeing on cost savings. About decision-makers, that are usually the older population, are better paid, thus are living in larger houses, with a better household help. This percentage of the population has carved out a different WFH context, which is a little different from employees that are young in age.
Several data suggest that about the women workforce, some have been seen to be extremely productive, while some have succumbed to digital distractions, and have taken refuge in something else. In order to achieve this, people centricity must be achieved, that requires data from multiple sources, thus a one sized policy doesn’t fit all.
Often it’s reported that corporations have taken decisions based out of the fact that some policies have worked well on a certain section of people. And that if had worked once, it would work all the time. Experts have stated that before jumping into conclusions that WFH helps in saving rental costs and brings delights to employees, it’s important that people get data on people’s home environments, family demographics, and the pain points of WFH. Additionally, HRs have to develop sound conceptual models on what helps in improving or hampering WFH productivity that is based on the nature of work of the employees in different grades that would devise a new way of managing productivity.
Studies by neuroscience have shown that the chemical balance of the brain shift while in isolation, leads to lower feelings of psychological safety, that affects creativity and openness to change.
Lastly, it’s the leaders responsibility to gauge and consider the responsibilities to think about the implicit contract that the employers have with employees, in order to provide a workplace that takes care of work needs, and helps to associate with work identity. This is a very strong builder of self esteem and social responsibility, that too in India. As of now, the IT industry has shown mixed signals as to what can the ramifications be, however, in order to make WFH a success, it has to be ensured that the basic challenges are done away with. Some of them include cybersecurity threats, data privacy and productivity.