People work to achieve their individual goal. I believe that human beings are wired or programmed to work, for livelihood or otherwise. Some have no choice but to work wherever they get an opportunity to work. However there are fortunate ones who choose their workplace, work schedule, and work nature.
In India around 47% population is employed in agriculture sector, 24% in industrial sector, and around 29% in services sector. This sector distribution of the workforce is changing over time depending on the policies, preferences, and potential. Rapid urbanization and migration have also influenced these trends. Interestingly if we look at the trend in the US and China it is very different. In the US, it is distributed as less than 2% in agriculture, around 19% in industries, and around 80% in services whereas in China it is something like 24%, 29%, and 47% respectively.
Generally when we talk about the future of work or the new world of work, we tend to focus more on organized sector and that too in industries and services. Hence we need to be conscious of the fact that when we are looking at the work trends or exploring the domain of work our views are skewed. This understanding is important as in India we shall be only talking about around half of the working population that is going to be affected by the nature of changes brought in the work sphere, working conditions, and work schedule.
Technology is a big differentiator and one of the forces of creative destruction. It is changing the way we used to work. More so we learnt it hard way during the pandemic period. It was challenging yet it provided an opportunity to many of us to explore, experiment, and expand our learning horizon. Working from home became a normal trend even in the government sector across regions, states, and organizations; across functions, roles, and processes. Wherever the processes were driven by technology, wherever networking was in place, wherever supply chain was managed through technological interventions, organizations shifted to work from home eco-system. Yet there were organizations that faced challenges and could not adapt to these changes.
Once the conditions normalised, work from home became new normal for many organizations, helping them save energy and efforts in building physical workspaces and that also supported the cause of environment protection through less carbon emission and footprints. There were incidences of family problems also bringing people to work-front. It was this time when organizations started negotiating between fully operating in traditional mode or fully allowing employees to work from home.
It was this time when organizations popularly explored hybrid work culture and its application at different workplaces. It is believed that the change is the only constant and we are moving towards the end of permanence. The employees are required to be oriented and prepared towards new culture where they are posed with the choices and options that companies provide depending on their size, nature, functions, operations, and culture.
In March 2021, Gallup conducted a survey among the full-time employees in the US understanding their views on hybrid work arrangements which reported that 31% of them want on-site work whereas around 18% wanted exclusive remote work. Remaining employees were for hybrid system. By May 2023 more and more employees started to prefer hybrid systems (59%) and exclusively remote or work from home system (34%) over on-site work (6%).
Interestingly it is also reported that 90% of remote-capable employees prefer some remote work flexibility and around 80% are currently working in hybrid or from remote location. It is not that important as where from they are working but what is important is whether they are given the choice or offered flexibility and are working from their desired location. Further it is expressed that such employees who get to work from their desired location are more engaged at work, less burned out, and less likely to quit. Though this is based on US employees, it reflects on the general preference of the employees and helps organizations understand the employees better.
In 2022, Deloitte reported that people who followed remote work and worked from home appreciated aspects related to the experience, commute, comfort, focus, and connection with their family. This behaviour could be extrapolated to the people across geographies. Yet one can not afford to ignore the other side of work from home systems leading to behavioural issues, disconnect with the team members, work-life conflict, and similar such concerns.
In this light switching to hybrid work culture (mix of work from home and on-site work) could be beneficial to the employees as well as organizations. It shall save time, help shortage of space, improve engagement levels, offer better alignment between business goals and individual fit, and give ample time for preparation and other ancillaries.
Organizations could explore on free-will model that could suit modern day tech companies. Industries could work on developing shift working (e.g., few hours onsite and few hours from home in a day) and/or offer week-by-week flexibility. These are just suggestive measures, however the companies could explore on some more models and involve employees for their convenience for customised conditions. Though it may not be possible and welcomed by many companies depending on the nature of their operation.
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10 thoughts on “TOWARDS A NEW WORLD OF WORK”
The note gives the true picture of the present scenario. It might not seem to happen currently but might take the real settings in the time to come. This type of work culture is not only present-oriented but also lead to the solution of unemployment including in itself different sections of the society. This is really to be acclaimed.
The note gives the true picture of the present scenario. It might not seem to happen currently but might take the real settings in the time to come. This type of work culture is not only present-oriented but may also lead to the solution of unemployment including in itself different sections of the society. This is really to be acclaimed.
It’s really true that hybrid mode is the new normal and might be in near future with the advancement of technologies robot and artificial intelligence may replace half of the work of human. As recently Bill Gates advocate for three day working a week because AI ease down the work.
Sir, you have beautifully analysed the clouds of changing work culture that loom over us.
Being a part of the sunnier half of the Indian population that gets to choose where to work, for whom to work and even for some people, whether to work or not, it is important to count our blessings and be grateful for these choices.
Great Read !
Nice article sir, this article shows a great insight about current rift between traditional working and remote working and provides a solution for it in terms of Hybrid mode.
A nice piece worth reading! Congratulations!!
In all environments work is a necessary requirement for the society as it creates resources for consumption. Not working and allowing people to not work should not be an option. Then how one works depends upon the given conditions. This is not only so in different countries but also for different trades in one country. Technology is emerging as a facilitator under all work environments including agriculture, manufacturing and service sector. But more so in service sector where migration is taking place from other environemnts in all countries. It is good and employers decide the mode of working considering the productivity, cost and profitability implications. But in the holistic view the long term implications of the change is good for developed countries and not so good for developing countries where people do not get an opportunity to work or lose the opportunity they hold. It is an emerging challenge for policy planners.
Sir, it’s a nice article and gives good reflections! Congratulations!
Sir, I feel most of the companies are back to square one they are no more offering work from home even when people want to explore WFH…