Workplace Innovation

There’s a very common saying that ‘necessity is the mother of all inventions’. Every small and big inventions that happened to mankind was initiated be a need or any problem that people were facing. Similarly, this pandemic situation has changed every decision making of our lives more uncertain. Previously at few things were certain and few we could control but presently there are more uncertainties and uncontrollable factors which are impacting every decision that we take.

Work from home or WFH which was a distant idea for few has now became the new normal. WFH was an alien notion for doctors but current situation has made telemedicine and online consultation a common phenomenon . In corporate world as well, we can find WFH has gained importance as companies are now being able to judge the impact and ease of it. It is not only helping in carrying out regular business, at the same time it is reducing various operational costs like electricity, broadband charges, etc. and also the travelling time the employees lost.

With this enormous change people are also learning to multi-task. While managing their official work from home they are even doing household chores and dealing with their kids at the same time. The current crisis has a far reaching and long-lasting impact on us. We all have to learn the new work-life balance which does not have any fine demarcations anymore. They are more collaborative in nature now and the distinction between work and home is blurring with every passing day.

The WFH phenomenon is impacting the work ethics for the better. People are being more accountable and responsive towards their deliverables. Managers who were apprehensive about remote working are now managing teams remotely without being in close contact with them. Even the part of work which was previously un-thought of like onboarding a new recruit virtually is taking place successfully.

Employees and organizations have well understood the benefits of WFH opportunity and thus many are thinking of continuing with it even post Corona times. People and systems have got acclimatized to this new normal and hence would like to continue in future as well.

To make employees perform better in this trying time when there are pay-cuts and layoffs happening everyday companies are undertaking initiatives to counsel their workforce online and even support them wherever possible. Management has been empathetic towards the employees through both-way top-down and bottom-up communication and bringing in more transparency into the system. Managers are checking-in the well being of his team members on a regular basis.

In doing so, the companies are not overlooking issues related to performance of the organization. They are trying to maintain at least the break-even point in business. In order to achieve it few measures are adopted like extending working hours and workdays, pay cuts, leave without pay options and manpower planning on the basis of their performance. All these innovations are meant to help the companies stride over the difficult time.