It is hard to predict the far future of work, but in the medium term, businesses that prosper will be those who excel at recruitment and prioritise providing a level playing field for all of their employees.

“Inclusion is not a matter of political correctness. It is the key to growth.” — Jesse Jackson

Following the COVID-19 outbreak, many workplaces globally retreated to living rooms and dinner tables. It disrupted the ever-changing landscape of workplace dynamics, highlighting two significant factors:

1. Rise of the remote workplace

2. Challenges faced by working women worldwide

Following substantial social and political developments in recent decades, top corporations are adopting measures to enhance Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I). This is the right thing to do, and has been endorsed by wise leaders given the numerous benefits of a diverse workplace, and also recognising the fact that it improves Employee Experience. Moreover, a comprehensive Diversity and Inclusion plan may assist companies in attracting top people and achieving creative results.

A comprehensive Diversity and Inclusion plan may assist companies in attracting top people and achieving creative results. Working from home might have drawbacks that stymie attempts to create more inclusive workplaces with equitable growth possibilities.

As per World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Index 2021, India has ranked 151st globally in economic participation and opportunity and 117th in wage equality in similar work. This implies that there is a long journey ahead of us to achieve parity in gender ratio. Today, since most urban workplaces have transitioned to remote workplace systems, it has widened the range of opportunities for organisations and individuals to carry out business, especially for women.

Indeed, remote and hybrid solutions hold promise for women as the globe struggles to recover over the next year or so. The argument goes that the capacity to control their own time will make it simpler for female employees to handle domestic duties that continue to be their primary responsibilities. These policies are already famous, and female workers are increasingly seeing them as non-negotiable. On the other hand, working from home might have drawbacks that stymie attempts to create more inclusive workplaces with equitable growth possibilities.

Finally, if companies want to recruit and retain talent in today’s competitive employment market, they must attend to the needs of the female workforce for flexible work arrangements. Below are some simple tips to leverage new age technology for employee retention.

Employee Listening

Employees who know they are heard are more engaged and productive. When staff members are given a voice, they are willing to use it. Investing in employee listening and prioritising performance is not only critical to employee and team success, it is also beneficial to your business. It can assist leaders in gathering opinions and new ideas from the broad group of employees that comprise your hybrid workforce.

Organisations must enhance their efficiency to collaborate, utilising the tools and technology at their disposal, for the hybrid workplace to be inclusive - where diversity of opinion is respected and rewarded. These can be platforms that aim to assist companies in establishing a sense of community among employees (regardless of region), giving everyone a voice and means to participate, and promoting employee well-being.

Data-driven HR Choices

The best course of action will vary depending on the situation, but it should not be based on management hunches or boilerplate ‘best practices’. Companies that make data-driven HR choices are at the top, like those who make data-driven decisions in almost every other area. There are several methods for gathering data on employee viewpoints, ranging from conducting town hall meetings to placing suggestion boxes, but as a part of the workforce becomes more remote, these interactions need not just move digital but also be anonymised. By anonymising this input, all employees’ perspectives are given equal weight, regardless of their work.

Companies may also include

• Regularly planned brainstorming sessions

• Remote mentorship programmes, or

• Modest gestures like devoting a chunk of team meetings to small chats

For instance, Zoom or Microsoft Teams are digital apps that make connecting with colleagues for more casual conversations.

The best course of action will vary depending on the situation, but it should not be based on management hunches or boilerplate ‘best practices’.

Prevention of bias through modern tools

DE&I challenges may be addressed using core HR and recruiting technology solutions, including Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML). Algorithms that prevent past patterns of underrepresentation are used in AI-based software systems that are both data-driven and trained to reject conventional biases. These systems may help with the entire talent management process, such as whom to recruit and how to manage and develop them, and decide their incentives and promotions. The goal is to detect and minimise bias through the entire decision-making process. When it comes to compensation, team salary overviews can highlight inequities and bias alerts using a calibration tool that analyses historical data, surfacing important information to managers, say for instance, when an employee has not been promoted in more than three years despite consistent high-performance ratings.

Leveraging insights via analytics and metrics for decision-making

DE&I, like any other organisational imperative, needs a systematic strategy and frequent monitoring and modification. Analytics reveals valuable data that we would not have discovered otherwise. Understanding the composition of your workforce, for example, is insufficient. A dashboard that combines data can assist managers in visualising and forecasting diversity trends while also emphasising essential diversity indicators and the effect of leadership initiatives. Companies can construct diversity scorecards to compare internal trends to external measures such as industry, geography, and other factors. Pushing diversity data to managers’ workstations and delivering data relevant to their daily operations at the moment of the decision via integrated analytics increases transparency and promotes actionable insights down the management chain.

Increasing employee awareness through Virtual D&I training

Incorporating Diversity and Inclusion discussions into staff development improves the quality of training. When it comes to staff development programmes, D&I activities have become the new normal. Technology and resources focusing on Diversity and Inclusion, mentoring, career progression, and, of course, employee development has made this feasible. These technologies improve D&I education by providing staff with hands-on experience. Furthermore, Virtual Reality training has shown to be a solid and successful tool for providing employees with life-like experiences.

 At K Raheja Corp, we have many Gen Z and millennial employees, generations which know precisely what they desire from their workplace. Today, it has become imperative to build a progressive organisation that embraces and demonstrates its values, and hence we have introduced transparent policies that encourage equal recognition and income to all employees.

The Company has also introduced an initiative called ‘Fab Women’, a women’s connect group that reaches out to all female employees within the Company. It is designed to empower them with information about health, lifestyle, fitness, social awareness, investments opportunities, child safety, events and activities and more. Similarly, the Aanchal Program for expectant mothers, ensures that young mothers are provided with a seamless back-to-work experience.

Millions of women are presently on the sidelines, seeking a route back into the workplace, while millions more struggle to manage competing demands. It is hard to predict the far future of work, but in the medium term, businesses that prosper will be those who excel at recruitment and prioritise providing a level playing field for all of their employees.