Let us not forget that in a way, we were fortunate enough to be able to be a part of this huge change and put in every idea and contribute to make it a better place to work.

The Novel Coronavirus pandemic has been the greatest teacher for all of us in the recent times. During this time, we realised who we are as organisations, professionals, and individual, among others. While it was a testing time for all of us, and still is, we rediscovered our emotional strength, our abilities to think out of the box, and all these with a genuine effort to manage our professional and personal life priorities.

In the past, we have witnessed, read, talked and envisaged a lot about what the future has in store for us, and how can we step in to make the transition seamless. But if we truly look at it, I think it brought in a paradigm shift for all of us. In so many discussions we spoke about “Business Continuity Management” or “Disaster Management”, but to be truthful, this presented to us what it actually means, and in what a crude way!

At the beginning of the lockdown, when the employees were given a verdict of working from home, the first common thing that we heard was a sigh of relief. Oh, what fun it is to escape the morning commute. No more hustle bustle of traffic and now we can merrily forget about the pollution. Did we also not hear about the flexibility that this arrangement will give us, and also charted out the plans for tools for physical fitness and mental well-being?

With remote working becoming the norm, we realised that it brought us to the point where Technology was the King! With more focus on online meetings, trainings, hiring and onboarding, IT infrastructure took the front seat. Early birds who had invested in this beforehand were better prepared to tackle the connectivity aspect of the game. This also brought in a change in the way we perceived things. Those previously thought of as difficult or non-feasible, paved the way for new way of following the processes.

However, although the IT Infrastructure and ease to connect with our colleagues on any work day was the tangible aspect of it, the role of HR became the single most important intangible aspect. The work culture in organisations is driven Top Down and it became pertinent that with the new ways of working, it was as important to reiterate on the few facets which were the game changers, and HR had to play an important role to facilitate this change management. But when did this need become so prominent?

Focused Efforts

It happened when we realised, with a dip stick study that the initial glee of working from home for the employees was slowly fading away. Without the socialising window that we all had during the coffee, smoke and lunch breaks, people started feeling a bit lonely and not connected to each other at emotional level. Brain storming was no more the same fun. Moreover, balancing the day between household chores and official meeting was getting on our nerves.

But to state the fact, Work from Home, or in some cases, Hybrid working is here to stay! It means that as organisations, we have to put in more focused efforts in:

•  Creating trust factor amongst our teams. Mentoring for a better output and giving a pathway to discuss hindrances without any adverse effect can really help.

• Getting more creative to get the best out of us along with cost optimisation measures is a sure win-win scenario.

• Reinstate Work Life Balance. We all tend to forget and respect that we might operate in different work time windows these days.

• Keep working on making future leaders ready. This time is no excuse to take a break from working on your future strategies 

• Continual focus on communication. Remember, this is the easiest make or break tool for you!

If we get these pointers right, we can definitely create more positive avenues and boost employee morale which in turn will up employee efficiency. Let us not forget that in a way, we were fortunate enough to be able to be a part of this huge change and put in every idea and contribute to make it a better place to work.

As an Organisation, it is important to be mindful of what worked for us, and definitely those, which didn’t, and then cherry-pick the favourable characteristics and continue to keep making it better. It is also not only HR’s job to be empathetic to the employees but a manager’s as well, to not lose the personal touch. So, let’s embrace the new normal and work towards creating an even better workplace for all of us!