Organizations Must Rethink Remote Work Policies, IT News, ET CIO

The way the world works has changed forever. We now live in a changing world where one of the strategies most used by organizations today is improvised business continuity through remote working to quickly align with emerging requirements. The need to work remotely is heightened by today’s customer expectations, which demand anytime, anywhere experience and no business disruption. Therefore, it is safe to say that the WFH is not going away anytime soon for businesses and employees. According to most surveys, over 80% of business executives plan to keep a hybrid arrangement in which a partial work-from-home situation will always be in place.

However, there is also a flip side to this. There have been reports of tremendous stress on distant leaders who often feel exhausted, pressured and isolated due to constant pressures. Many say that leading a virtual team has been a stressful experience. As most employees work from home, the possibilities for random recordings are severely restricted. For this reason, it becomes more and more difficult to know if workers are having problems in their work. As a result, managers are sometimes unable to effectively support their teams. Plus, many say the “real work†begins after day-long video meetings. By the time they’re able to focus on their independent tasks and get the big picture, burnout ensures they’re less likely to be productive. For example, they cited difficult access to information and resources, technical problems, distractions when working from home, social isolation and the always unclear work-life balance.

An investigation found that the organizations’ leadership team is developing post-Covid19 work policies without asking for any input from employees. It indicates that leaders cling to an inherited mindset and mostly fail to recognize that fundamental changes have taken place in the way work is viewed and done. Nor do they recognize the concomitant and fundamental changes occurring in the workforce.

“I think the main reason managers hire employees is the emergence of insecurity due to incompetence in how remote work is to be performed. And I’m only talking about roles that don’t need to do something physically to work. I wrote about this insecurity last year, and I don’t see HR teams innovating around remote working. Considering that many have developed expertise around remote working, it would be difficult to train and raise awareness on how to achieve maximum productivity when working remotely? â€Says Agnidipta Sarkar, Group CISO, Biocon, l one of India’s largest and most innovative biopharmaceutical companies.

According to a Future Forum Pulse survey, which surveyed more than 10,500 workers, many executives continue to view the physical office as the backbone of their professional activities. This despite the fact that there is a growing preference for flexible work policies among workers. The survey also found that employees had little say in the planning of post-pandemic work policies. This suggests that the plans are designed based on the work preferences of the management team. This can lead to a dire situation and has the potential to snowball into a brain drain, which could leave organizations crippled and faltering, especially at a time when skilled labor is needed. ‘time.

Therefore, business leaders must adopt a leadership style that empowers. They must delegate authority as well as decision making to team members. They need to mentor workers rather than order them and seek input to solve problems. Managers must allow employees to have a sense of belonging in the day-to-day work. This would lead to greater confidence and less micromanagement. Meetings need to be replaced with meaningful conversations about business strategy to fuel performance and growth. Such leadership styles will have a positive impact on employees, leading to increased engagement, job satisfaction, efficiency and performance.

The survey indeed expressed a sentiment that has been repeated several times in recent months. While on the one hand workers embrace remote working and see it as a mainstay of their work preferences, on the other hand, senior management is more prone to a work week that revolves around the office setup. Of those polled, up to 44% of executives said they would like to work from their desks every day, compared to just 17% of workers.

There is also a financial angle to the struggle. Many companies want to reduce the wages of remote workers, unlike those who work in the same position from their desks. This may not bode well for the employees and they could find themselves facing the armed management. Additionally, remote working somewhat levels the playing field for workers around the world and employees are looking to achieve pay parity in all countries, which can put leaders in a difficult position, especially in countries like India.

“This is a question we are often asked during the interview process these days. With remote working becoming mainstream, the challenge for companies in India will be to match the salaries that companies in US / Europe are willing to pay for top talent, â€said a leading technology leader.