All things-talent-magazine-september-2020-38-43

ALL THINGS TALENT SEPTEMBER 202038
The future seems to be illuminated by the need
to adapt or be overshadowed by the competition
quickly. Transitioning requires rigorous reviews
on procedures, and communication remains a
vital pedestal for the workplace.
T
he world has been
changed profoundly
by dynamic shifts
experienced due to
pandemic in the last six months.
Companies are forced to operate
efficiently with drastic changes
that will rejuvenate productivity.
Many people view work as a place
where you meet physically to
discuss objectives and brainstorm
ideas to solve business problems.
Reimagining the workplace
without physical meetings seemed
unconventional for some of the
companies until recently in India.
Technology is considered as the
most significant subset that seems
to be a mandatory integration in
reconfiguring the workplace for
letting efficiency and productivity
to maximize in its spectrum. Like
how Microsoft Team meetings and
Zoom meetings are transforming
the way we work - a simple
invitation link with a stable
Internet connection is replacing
physical meetings and now many
big and small organisations are
rethinking whether to operate
from physical locations or not.
On further cultivating workplaces
with technology, the prospect has
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the adoption of new ways of working
across businesses. While the crisis has contributed to the implementation
of work from home policies, it has also initiated a hybrid approach to work-
time split between home and workplace. Organisations would now have to
focus on creating a safe working environment that helps people to return
to work premises, adjust to the new virtual/physical hybrid way of working
and reimagine work in bringing openness, trust, and collaboration in the
workplace.
Envisioning Workplaces in a
Post-COVID World - Design
and Beyond

iimjobs.com | hirist.comSEPTEMBER 2020 39
led to the emergence of smart
buildings that emphasize the
health and safety of employees
while integrating a tech-enabled
connected network which will
seem to digitize the work layout.
Inbuilt technology and sensors
implanted throughout the building
which includes security system,
time login and a plethora of
workplace applications integrated
including friendly security and
front office executive are being
replaced by cognitively-abled,
high-end robots.
Reimagining Workplace
Post-COVID-19
Amid the scenario of COVID-19,
the on-site workplaces have
seemed to remain vacant owing to
newly integrated work from home
policies. The pandemic event, with
its heavy death toll worldwide, has
raised concern among individuals
for needing to be safe from the
expansive distribution of the
COVID-19 contagion. There has
also been a redesign in space to
enhance social distancing and a
restriction of movements in offices.
This has become the new norm
with the fundamental transition
being a necessity in these
challenging times.
Transitioning Work
Culture
While the pandemic emergence has
contributed to the implementation
of work from home policies, it
has initiated a new culture of
remote working. Work culture
has sought to visualize innovation
as the sole aspect while allowing
employees to remain in contact
with the corporate proceedings. In
consequence, several companies
have thus enacted the same
COVERSTORY
while enabling employees to stay
connected remotely and virtually.
The future seems to be illuminated
by the need to adapt or be
overshadowed by the competition
quickly. Transitioning requires
rigorous reviews on procedures,
and communication remains a vital
pedestal for the workplace.
Future Workplace
Scenarios
Fully Remote Working from
Home (Work from Anywhere)
For an employee, the remote
working culture can seem to
provide benefits as it does not
require setting foot into the
office and lets him/her be in their
comfort zone. The work at home
infrastructure entails employees
using their homes as offices and
delivering work as required.
Employers have seemed to remain
distressful about the longer breaks
while not being able to monitor
an employee up close. Work
from home policies also helps in
maintaining work-life balance
while increasing flexibility in the
work pattern that benefits both
employees as well as the employer.
Work from Home and Office
(Hybrid Model)
The Hybrid scenario, on the other
hand, constitutes a discipline
where the employees can remain
partly at home and partly on-
site. It offers the experiences
one endures while working from
home and while continuing
habituation within the office
environment. As such, the only
contrasting aspect of the hybrid
policy is that it lets employees be
well-familiarized with the on-site
environment as compared to work
from home policies. Implementing
a hybrid approach enables one in
overcoming obstacles of remote
working that can be attributed to
social isolation, decreased physical
collaboration alongside potential
invisibility for both co-workers

and management. This model
entails employees working from
home and the office. A robust IT
infrastructure is needed to ensure
collaboration for employees
without interaction.
Work from Office
(Traditional Model)
The scenario refers to the
traditional environment where
an employee is required to be
on the premises of an office.
It facilitates communication
and interaction while inducing
the collaborative environment
necessary in a workspace. While
on-site work cultures do help to
provide motivation and seamless
communication, it does have
its inconsistencies in its daily
commuting back and forth that
drains the energy required for
retaining efficiency.
Envisioning the
Redesigning of
Workplaces
The transition from on-site
working to hybrid and fully remote
scenarios began as a short-term
remote necessity. This was hailed
by the COVID-19 pandemic that
saw many offices set up virtually.
The foreseeable future seemed
nothing short of this. With
looming uncertainty at the end of
the pandemic, many companies
made the giant leap.
The future envisions for the
workplace thus indicates an
environment that encapsulates
innovation, creativity and
collaboration. However, it also
seeks the need to provide a
captivating architecture in the
workspace for the employees
to feel motivated. However, the
framework still has its issues
surrounding communication while
consisting of loneliness and lack
of human interaction as a major
inconsistency, and this will be
more compounded when some
tasks need humans to collaborate
with robots to complete the job.
Today, most of the work happens
through collaboration but days
are not that far when emails will
start getting replaced by role-based
access systems where everyone
can see where and what stage each
work is at and no one will have to
worry about CC and Bcc (emails)
anymore.
On the other hand, the workplace
design will be more inclined
upon valuing transparency.
Greater transparency brings in
more trust and confidence, and
greater confidence brings in more
collaboration.
Virtual collaboration has been
embraced across teams. This,
Inducing AI technology
opens possibilities
of remote hiring
with gamification
where candidates
will be exposed
to real complex
business situations,
and assessors
can evaluate many
candidates together at
the same time and see
how each candidate is
performing.
COVERSTORY

however, needs to be rigorous
and needs to be well planned.
The refining of experience means
a complete overhaul in terms of
virtual training, working and
delivery.
In this VUCA world, the corporate
ecosystem is quite dynamic.
Investors want quicker returns.
Customers want more features
with a quality product without
spending more. The government
intends to levy more taxes to meet
government expenditure. Suppliers
want to make a margin, so it is
natural for an employer to become
more competitive and wanting to
“Do More with Fewer Resources”.
The employee is a resource, and the
employer would like an employee
to be multiskilled looking at the
current and future scenario.
Employers will have to become a
cost-conscious spender.
Today, due to cost pressures,
many start-ups and small and
medium-size companies are
looking forward to hiring a
technical product manager who
can manage technical as well
as management aspects of the
product. Companies are redefining
their work roles, where the focus
will be more on re-skilling and
on employees with multiple skill
sets with multi-domain exposure;
there will be a wave for specialists,
generalists more of like full-stack
professionals in all the functions.
All non-value added, repetitive and
predictive routine work will be
entirely replaced by automation.
Hierarchies Relevance in
the Workplace
The future indicates inducing
designs that dispels the cubicle
spaces and instead construct
In a few months from now, we will see a dynamic
shift in the way talent is acquired. Due to virtual
hiring, diverse talents will be available in the
market and the talent market will be driven by the
employees. The employee would not mind working
part-time for engaging projects, unlike now
where most of the employees look for stability but
compromise on so many aspects of work.
an open office environment for
facilitating communication and
innovation. In the traditional work
setup without having a hierarchy,
a company might not effectively
be in control over its executives,
employees as well as managers. It
will undoubtedly lead to a failure
of managing accountability while
not facilitating the required
creativity in a collaborative
learning environment.
In the course of digitization
being induced in the commercial
environment, hierarchical
supervision will be minimized and
companies will adapt to a leaner
structure, traditional pyramid
structure will vanish as future
systems will harness the power
of data to manage and supervise
people and leaders and supervisors
will focus on their human skills to
facilitate the supervision.
The workplace will be project and
task-based. The major challenge
of supervisors will be to motivate
people with personalization. Tech-
enabled video calls which will
predict employee’s mood, interest,
learning, etc. will appear on the
manager’s screen through which
supervisors can take appropriate
action while still on the video call.
Workplace of the Future
In this new era of work, employers
need to look at ways to bring
openness, trust and collaboration
in the workplace. In a few months
from now, we will see a dynamic
shift in the way talent is acquired.
Due to virtual hiring, diverse
talents will be available in the
market and the talent market
will be driven by the employees.
The employee would not mind
working part-time for engaging
projects, unlike now where most
of the employees look for stability
but compromise on so many
aspects of work. But as we advance
there will be a breed of talent
in the market who will work on
engaging projects on their terms
and conditions. The talent market
will be driven by talent, not by
employers.
Remote Hiring and
On-boarding
Inducing AI technology opens
possibilities of remote hiring with
gamification where candidates
will be exposed to real complex
business situations, and assessors
can evaluate many candidates
together at the same time and see
how each candidate is performing.
Also, technology can enable a
shortlisted pool of candidates to
COVERSTORY

compete with each other which
will help to ensure hiring bias is
reduced. It allows employees to be
on board while being under the
influence of remote work culture
with the aid of virtual platforms.
Remote on-boarding seeks to
retain the sustainability of digital
employee engagement while
promoting a new work culture that
does not require being on-site.
Sustainability of Digital Employee
Engagement
Modernizing the workplace with
futuristic improvisation tends
to empower, inspire alongside
allow people to lend their efforts
in communicating, collaborating
as well as solving problems. The
changing capabilities of employees
need leaders to determine gaps
while identifying a diverse range
of skills to be prepared and
allowed to perform in new job
roles. Leaders need to be equipped
to help employees identify their
hidden strengths.
Performance Evaluation
The AI integrated system will
further evaluate the performance
of each employee while monitoring
the productivity generated from
each alongside ensuring that it
contributes toward furnishing
organisational goals and tech-
enabled performance evaluation
eliminates the biases which exist
in the traditional performance
evaluations.
Employees’ Mental Health
The ongoing COVID scenario has
led to an increasing awareness in
employees about technological tool
sets that speculates acceleration
of development in the workplace.
As such, the mental health of
the employees will remain active
throughout the time being in
the workplace, facilitating an
innovative mindset carried along
with creativity will become the
need of the hour. We will see in the
coming days that many Chatbot-
based employee mental wellness
applications are being subscribed
by the employers.
New Digital Workplace
Issues and HR’s Readiness
While the futuristic layout
will certainly be considering
employee health, safety, along
with cost reduction, AI or artificial
intelligence will play a significant
role in shaping the workplace
further in the future. However,
it can also contribute towards an
inevitable rise in security as well
as compliance issues in a digital
workspace. Besides, it requires
considering the capability of HR to
act as per requirement in a certain
COVERSTORY

About the Author
Vinay Ravindran is an
SPHRi certified Human
Resources Professional with
rich and varied experience
in various industries and
HR functions like Talent
Acquisition (Engineering,
Software/Non-Technical),
Performance Management,
Talent Management, Employee
Engagement, Organisation
Development, HR Policies and
System Implementation, etc.
Currently, he is spearheading
the Human Resources function
of the Hyderabad delivery
Centre of SG Analytics. An
alumnus of IIM-Kozhikode,
Vinay comes with over 15 years
of experience in managing
knowledge workforce,
engineering/IT workforce
and sales HR with PAN India
exposure. He is a passionate
and transformational leader
with an ability to manage HR
projects from conceptualization
to completion and building
relationships with clients and
across organisations and teams.
You can read his other articles
on vinayravindran.com
period, or else it will contribute
towards a significant backdrop
in the smooth flowing working
environment.
Employees and Trust
The collaborative culture among
employers will further contribute
to an inclusive environment while
creating a digitized environment
that facilitates automation at its
framework. Employees can only be
trusted if they remain devoted to
organisational goals and willing to
participate as a team to reach the
designated target. Employers must
bring authenticity and empathy
in all people transactions, identify
the areas where people’s biases
exist and address it with authentic
communication and action.
Impact of Excessive
Reliance on Technology
The only downside of the digital
implementation is its inability to
induce verbal engagement among
employees. While the futuristic
digitization in the workplace
seeks to implement a robust
system for injecting an innovative
conundrum with technological
implants, it does tend to reduce
the capability of an employee in
verbally communicating with
employees and employers. It
certainly removes that personal
touch one requires while working
within a professional medium that
does not seem to induce the sense
of belonging one requires in that
environment. Besides, being more
reliant on technology can lead
to a disconnected environment
where employees may not feel like
participating even though they
are let to work in a collaborative
environment, and in such a
situation, emotional intelligence
gains prominence.
At the workplace, people work in
three different layers, Emotional
layer, Cognitive Layer and Physical
Layer. Digital technology has
taken away the Cognitive layer
with Artificial Intelligence.
Physical layer vanished because
of automation, and the only layer
which digital technology could not
copy as of now is the Emotional
layer, and that is the reason why
emotional intelligence is gaining
prominence in the era of the digital
age. Employees and Employers
must recognize this and leverage it!
Conclusion
The evolving culture of the
workplace is hinging towards
inducing digitalization while
considering the technology as a
significant resource for facilitating
innovation and collaboration. The
COVID-19 emergence has brought
upon the new mode of remote
working that allows employees
not to be on-site while remaining
connected digitally through the
virtual medium.
However, if compared with a
hybrid culture, remote working
bears its considerable issues
in lack of interaction and
communication that ultimately
leads to deterioration of
productivity. As such, remote
working might not be considered
as a feasible contemporary work
culture for many Indian companies
in the future and beyond, hence it
is better to implement hybrid work
culture following the resolution of
the pandemic scenario.
The integration of a collaborative
and flexible culture in a digitized
workspace environment requires
hierarchy to supervise the
managerial process while ensuring
COVERSTORY
the culture remains validated
across the organisational spaces.
Besides, the article contemplates
the possible issues that might arise
owing to long-term dependence on
technology.

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