Employees are seeing multiple benefits in a hybrid model of working: Experts

Employees are seeing multiple benefits in a hybrid model of working like cost savings, work-life balance and flexibility to work from any location of their choice, according to industry experts. In a webinar by Awfis, home-grown flex workspace provider - ‘Embracing the New Normal: Strategies for Distributed Workforce', experts said that organisations must enable employees with the right work setup to ensure optimum productivity and seamless communications between teams for a sustainable work environment.

“A distributed workplace has become the pivotal strategy for many companies that were evaluating whether to continue work from home or ask employees to return to office. We have now been presented with an opportunity to usher a new hybrid way of working. In fact, distributed workspaces allow organizations to foster business continuity which has accelerated the adoption of this model in the face of the current situation,” said Amit Ramani, CEO & Founder, Awfis.
While work from home has equipped employees with high level of productivity, it has also brought feeling of isolation, blurring of lines between work life balance and lack of collaboration to the forefront which has led to the emergence of a distributed workforce which provides a successful workplace strategy, according to experts.

“In the new normal, Organizations that provide their employees with the option to choose a suitable model will emerge as winners. With the positive impact on environment and sustained productivity seen in recent times, employees won’t prefer commute to far off distances on a regular basis,” said Navaneet Mishra, Senior Vice President & General Manager, Hexagon Capability Center India. Experts said that HR policies have to be constantly evolving or situational in nature to provide the right solutions to businesses. Long term or rigid policies have not always proven to be successful.

“The pandemic has allowed us to be more sensitive to our surrounding and adapt to a sustainable workforce module. With focused investments in teams and technology, we have witnessed increased productivity with time. As we are still facing uncertainty, it is essential to ensure that we are protecting our people and being future ready by building a culture pivoted on trust,” said Manisha Prasad, Head Human Resources, CRIF.

Panelists said that new era of work will largely depend on technology to ensure a safe, smart and smooth remote working scenario. “The idea of distributed workplace has been prevailing for long time now and companies had earlier experimented with it on very few occasions. However, with the advent of the pandemic, companies re-adopted this model for business continuity and are providing all the support to their employees in terms of furniture, internet etc. The adoption of this model allowed enterprises to ensure not just ease of doing business, but also employee engagement amidst the remote working scenario,” said Balvinder Singh Arora, Vice President - Administration, Paytm.

Sumitabh Bhatnagar, Head - Corporate HR, VFS Global said that a distributed workforce will continue to be a reality across industries for the foreseeable future. “This model has already proven positive results by giving professionals the opportunity to optimize work-life balance, control their budget better without the usual expenses of travel, fuel, and rents that one would otherwise pay to live closer to work. For organizations, a distributed working model enables the diversification of the workforce, allowing them to hire people without location and infrastructure as a parameter, thereby widening their talent pool,” he said.

Source: Publication: TheEconomicTimes, 1st April ,2021