Reimagining the Workplace Post COVID-19 — Structure, Roles, Practices, and Competencies
Session Highlights , 29th April 4:00 pm
Video Recording : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXVIWNWtHx4
Panellists
Dr Garima Sharma, Asst Professor, Strategic Management at University of New Mexico
Reetu Raina, CHRO, Quick Heal Technologies
Protima Sharma, Managing Partner PeopleWiz Consulting LLP
Businesses are grappling today with increasingly complex issues. Till about Feb of this year In India, our regular business issues were an economic slowdown and BAU challenges. And then the first wave of pandemic hit us. Business faced Initial issues around protection, communicating with customer, stabilizing supply chain, but soon realized that this will not go away very quickly.
The world is in a deep economic recession where demand has just stopped. For many of us business survival has been a big question. As we get close to the lock down uplifting in most part of the country, next big question is how to restart without endangering our people. And finally, the biggest question facing us is even if we survive these few months or maybe a year, has the world changed permanently? Is there a new normal? What impact will that have in the workplace? This webinar highlighted major changes that can be expected in the workplace in the coming future.
The ‘new normal’ can potentially alter the way we work
Leaders have learnt the hard way that business issues cannot be isolated from social and environmental issues. For example, food delivery apps such as Uber Eats and Door Dash have been accused of charging exorbitant fee from restaurants in the pandemic as the delivery apps’s business picks up. They are also suffering a huge backlash for not protecting gig workers. Also, the pandemic shows us even more clearly that businesses can make or break local economies by their actions. This pandemic is an opportunity to challenge CSR as an add on, as something a business does above and beyond everyday business practices. This pandemic has shown us that strategic decisions need to consider social impact. A recent paper showed that organizations who do that, who adopt sustainable practices are more resilient in bouncing back from shocks such as this one.
Business models will now pivot to adapt to these issues with agility. For example, London based liquor manufacturer 58 Gin updated its production process to make hand sanitizers. Tesla, Ford and General Motors similarly switched to making ventilators gaining them huge reputational advantages.
The need to be ambidextrous, multiskilled that as a response to operating with a reduced workforce will change the way both employees and employers look at a job. People who have invested in ERP have a head start, as virtualization of business practices will be akin to survival. A huge uptake on automation is expected.
Business Continuity, Safety, Wellbeing which were considered topics for the support function , will become more mainstream. Cybersecurity is another area that will see a huge jump.
Governments will ‘gate-keep’ flows of goods, services, finance and labour when national strategic interests are at stake. Indeed, we should be ready for a new phase of ‘gated globalization’.
Upcoming Trends in Organizational Structures and Roles
When a bellwether like TCS says that by 2025 only 25% of employee’s time will be at office, we have to take notice of the changing winds. Companies are training their workers on effective remote working, video call etiquettes, virtual collaboration, and just plain old how to take initiative and not look for instructions all the time.
In terms of relational dynamics at work, we need a careful rethink whether working from home is a feasible option not just for workers but also for business. A recent research showed that employees showed increase in productivity in working from home but their promotions conditional on performance fell. So, there are social dynamics we need to consider, the whole economy cannot shift to virtual working, and if we do, we need to fundamentally shift our systems such as performance and reward. Also, there are hidden institutional issues such people who do not have internet access. Can the government make internet access as a basic right? Then there are public health issues. NYT recently reported spike in domestic violence worldwide due to the lockdown. The conversation about change in organizational structures and roles is not complete without also considering these more systemic issues.
New roles are emerging in health and safety and compliance. The regulatory environment will change on a faster pace than usual. Where we used to abide by regulations and labour laws to save on fines, companies will now develop protocols to ensure survival and confidence of employees as well as customers.
In 2015, retired US Army General Stanley McChrystal published a book titled Teams of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World. McChrystal’s work, which chronicles his effort to reorganize the fight against Al Qaeda in Iraq, shows that a decentralized model can be effective even in a traditionally hierarchical institution like the US military. The concept has been around for some years, but its time has come now. We can no longer rely on one person to take all decisions. There have to be leaders at every level. Organizations will be more ‘outcome-focused’ with increased appetite for errors to help teams become self-sustaining.
Innovative organizational practices to help employees adapt
Leaders need to empathize with their people as everyone lives in fear and uncertainty. Involve stakeholders, including employees for define or redefining your business’ value proposition, processes for value creation and value capture.
In the long run, talk to your stakeholders, including your employees, as you think about pivoting and restarting your business. They are the closest to the problem but have the least power to craft a solution. Technology is a tool, it is a platform, but that can’t be where the conversation about business model pivots start. Involve your stakeholders as you define your business’ value proposition, processes for value creation and value capture.
Holacracy, that promotes self-managed teams has been on the side-line for long. It’s time to look at the practice more closely for solutions to changing organizational needs.
Creating work portability is proving to be a win-win for organizations and their resources. For example, Bank of America has converted more than 3,000 employees from across the bank into positions intended to manage the flood of calls from customers. Cisco has an internal marketplace for jobs and assignments. If there is hiring freeze, internal gigs are offered by splitting one job to five part time experiences and offering them to five people.
Another innovative idea gaining popularity is industry talent exchanges. This has already started in a big way in China where employees from badly hit sectors like restaurants, airlines are temporarily loaned to sectors that see a spike in demand like essential retail and logistics. For example, Alibaba’s retail grocery chain engaged hundreds of employees that used to work for two restaurant chains in China.
Recently Mckinsey surveyed Plant Managers in China to understand the protocols that are being followed . The figure below shows some examples
Competencies gaining spotlight
People with these two competencies are expected to be more successful in the world of tomorrow — ‘system thinking’ and ‘paradoxical mindset’. Systems thinkers can zoom into parts and zoom out to see the entire system. They can see interdependencies such that organizations are not silos, but a part of many global issues. Employees of tomorrow can see such interdependence, helping them to adapt and take decisions effectively.
They are also comfortable with uncertainty and tensions between social-commercial and organizational-global factors. Researchers describe this competency as paradoxical mindset where you see tensions, accept that tensions will sustain, and work to continuously navigate them.
Image Source: Miron-Spektor et al. 2017. Microfoundations of organizational paradox.
Another important competency that we need to polish is communicating with empathy. Studying communication styles of our political leaders can give some insight:
German Chancellor Angela Merkel embraces science. She is clear, logical and inspires trust. Brazilian President Bolsonaro rejects science. U.S. President Donald Trump’s daily briefings are a spectacle, while Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi talks to us at regular milestones almost telling us what to do and trying to bring us all together even as we stay isolated. New Zealand Prime Minister does Facebook live in her sweatshirt and almost stands next to the average New Zealander. It is the leaders who show kindness and empathy in their communication, that are able to influence people’s behaviour way better.
Talking about technical skills, the hiring data in the past month shows that there is increasing demand for Cloud Mobility, Network Management, IT security, and Content Writing.
Product design is another area that can see massive movement, whether it is masks for hearing impaired or self-cleaning toilets, designers are thinking of innovative ways to ensure social distancing and hygiene. An Italian company Avio published how flying would look like in future:
Image Source: Avio Interiors
Single most important advice
Reset the compass. Leaders can reset the compass by understanding their purpose in this pandemic and committing to it, developing competence and innovate, communicating effectively. For example, in India, trains were transformed into makeshift quarantine centres.
Do not freeze! Accumulate facts, adapt, be agile and move forward. Leaders need to understand need of the hour and become flexible, adaptable. For improving employability in these times, what can help is focusing on jobs and skills that are witnessing increasing demand in the current scenario, upskill and create your brands as individuals.
Think of time as the ‘long present’. Crises such as this one can make trade-offs between short and long term come to life. Leaders start thinking of how we can stop feeding into the long-term investments such as in the R&D department, to direct resources to short term gains such as sales. What a long present allows us to do is see the future as a process, as a series of incremental steps, not a leap. Our advice is to move way from short-long term trade-offs, and instead, move toward the long present; like in music, there is continuous movement forward, from playing one note to playing the entire concert.
When we experienced a slowdown in 2009, many predictions were made- Time Magazine predicted end of consumerism, General Motors predicted end of SUV. Predictions have a way of sounding definite; some symptoms show up and then they could fizzle. There is value in looking at the future and thinking of possibilities, but it is equally important to remain humble and realize that world is complex. What matters is that we keep moving forward.
