WFH: Is ‘Remote Work’ the new Future?

The COVID-19 global pandemic has practically reshaped all aspects of human life. It has been over a year since the first nationwide lockdown was imposed to counter the spread of the deadly virus. During this year, just like everything else, our workplaces have transformed. Among other things, we have developed a new ‘workplace vocabulary’,  terms like ‘WFH’ (work from home) and ‘video conference’ becoming more and more a part of common parlance each passing day.

The Voices takes a look at how these transformations have played out across various sectors.

Learning from the past year

Over the lockdown, video conferencing has boomed and emerged as an acceptable way of communication, cutting out the need for business travel and long drawn meetings. The contactless, paperless recruitment process for government jobs is one such transformation.

The case of the Indian Judiciary

In the case of judiciary in India, video conferencing has proven to be especially effective in cutting down lengths of oral submissions. Although this has yielded good results in the clearing of cases especially in the Supreme Court, there are other issues that come to notice.

“A lot of litigation depends on communicating the client’s issues to the judge and a lot of this communication happens in person in courtrooms”, says a social justice litigant when asked on the matter. While corporate law has scope to go digital to a large extent, the existing system in litigation would have a difficult transition into working online. Only important cases were taken up by video conferencing during the pandemic and the same system cannot be simply extended to others, says the lawyer.

The issue of sharing classified files safely over the internet is another hurdle. Connectivity issues and lack of access to the internet, could also mean justice is inaccessible to many.

WFH-Not for All

While those who could afford were able to quickly adapt to the change, it was the lower-income group that found themselves without access, and often out of work. WFH is also role-based and is not an option for several job profiles that require fieldwork.

Do the numbers make a case for WFH?

According to a survey by Global Workplace Analytics, 93% of employees would like the WFH trend to continue at least for some more time. Work from home provides obvious flexibility while also adding value to the day by cutting out commute time. In large cities like Bangalore, infamous for its traffic, WFH provides a massive advantage. According to a survey by co-working space provider Awfis, an average working professional in India can save 1.47 hours of commute time daily. This flexibility could also allow for companies to tap into talent based outside city centres.

The change has also had an effect on a specific workforce. Women find it easier to balance their multiple roles. Experts say that a prolonged work from home situation may have a positive impact on the workplace gender divide.

Besides the advantages enjoyed by employees, employers too cite some gains. Running costs and overheads of large offices have plummeted. Many companies have redirected a portion of these savings towards setting up good connectivity and a basic workspace for employees within their homes. The convenience of working from home has also resulted in higher productivity. A study by Stanford showed a 13% increase in productivity due to WFH. Providing the option of WFH is also a big incentive when it comes to hiring. Several major employers like Twitter and Facebook have indicated that post pandemic, the future of work is going to be remote.

Employees Speak

While the numbers show an increasingly good case for at least a partial shift to WFH in the future as well, some employees have a different opinion. Ashwin K P, Associate consultant, Bain and Company says, “As a consultant, a big part of the job is travelling and working alongside our clients. The WFH model has made it much harder to develop close relations with our clients, and it has reduced the peer learning on the job as we only interact with our colleagues over scheduled meetings”.

He says that he looks forward to being back at work and meeting his teammates. When asked what the ideal work setup would look like for him, he said that a work from office situation with the options for employees to choose to work from home for brief periods, would be the perfect balance.

A Hybrid Future?

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) one of the largest employers in the Indian IT sector was among the first to announce a hybrid working system called the 25 by 25 model in which only 25% of the workforce will work out of their facilities by 2025. Internationally, Google and Microsoft indicated that they are in no hurry for their employees to return to work while Twitter is moving to make WFH a permanent option.

With large players in the private sector betting on a new way of working for the future, the Government sector on the other hand seems to be returning to old ways by shifting to 50% occupancy in their offices despite the unpredictability of the virus.

What about the Public Sector?

The Public sector being the largest employer in India, it also owns the most workspace. Moving towards a hybrid working system could result in making efficient use of their resources, experts feel. Working online also leaves an auditable trail and this has positive impacts on accountability.

But based on the experience during the first lockdown, how feasible is a partial shift to the WFH mode in this sector? A senior government official from the Revenue Department elucidates that the shift to WFH was easier than anticipated, while also mentioning that it did lead to a loss of camaraderie. While junior employees enjoyed the flexibility, he felt that structure and interpersonal skills took a hit. The general consensus in the Public Sector is that large parts of the work is in grievance redressal and this is work that is most effectively done in person. Being on the ground and interacting with citizens is a big part of the job. While the officer preferred a work from office model for the future, he also mentioned that where significant automation is possible, partial WFH could be a possibility.

The Way Forward

A year later, with the virus still raging and states going into a lockdown yet again, it seems that workplace flexibility is a major advantage for unpredictable times. Having  tested the WFH waters, both employees as well as employers seem to have developed a taste for it. In spite of all the uncertainty of these times, there’s no changing the fact that the future of the ‘workplace’ has been rewritten.

Edited by: Aswathy Sathyapal and Mohammed Sajid