Are Organizations prepared for the new Avatar of Employees ?
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Are Organizations prepared for the new Avatar of Employees ?
In recent months, almost all Organizations have asked their employees to return to offices. The office premises are all decked up, and promises to return to the same buzz once again. HR is busy sending reminders to the employees. Some are starting with weekly once, some twice a week and some are regularising it a full week. But what employees are thinking? Are they willing to come out of the Covid-Inertia and return to work? Or it is more than Covid-Inertia which Organizations are missing to take note of?
In this Great Return to Office drive, are organizations recognising the changes in the mental and emotional frame of their workforce due to the Pandemic, and are they prepared to handle the modified avatar of their employees?
Before the covid-19, and in the last few decades, the concept of a work-life balance was seen to be essential to both organizations and employees. Companies that had the most progressive, family-friendly work environments and often provide elder care and child care assistance benefits, employee assistance programs, and/or flexible work hour policies, were the most sought. These benefits are surely popular and are considered a competitive advantage by many companies. But in recent years, WLB was proving to be insufficient, as many surveys had shown.
Add to it, the Pandemic caused businesses across the world to reinvent and redesign their strategies. The ‘reinvention’ was not only limited to business strategies but also Human Resource Management strategies as employees struggled to meet the new way of working. COVID-19 made us realize how fragile and unpredictable our lives can become in unusual situations. No one was spared, from the impact of Covid -19, losing their dear and near ones. The scars are yet to be healed.
In the last two years, people have moved towards anything that may provide solace beyond the chaos and an understanding of the order of things beyond what they physically and consciously observe in real life. Religion and spirituality give way to a deeper contemplation of our collective and individual existences. Yet still, it has seldom been allowed into the workplace, because companies aim for the one-size-fits-all approach and shrink away from the challenges of civil rights tied to one’s identity.
It is also important to know how the younger generations responded to the Pandemic, as this is the generation which in the coming decade, will become the major portion of the world workforce.
A survey run by global health and wellness company Vitality Group reported, that across all measured mental and physical health dimensions (e.g., anxiety, employer connectedness, sleep, diet, exercise), a higher proportion of millennials reported experiencing worse effects during COVID-19 than usual relative to their older colleagues (Generation X and baby boomers).
Gen Z is confused about the jobs of the future. The pandemic has become a barrier preventing them from moving to their next stage of life. Gen Z’s biggest impact on the workplace will be, that they will force all institutions to focus on a societal purpose and follow that purpose with tangible actions that benefit society as a whole. This pandemic has reinforced Gen Z’s socially conscious mindset and agenda, accelerating their plea and protest for institutions to invest their money and create a policy for lasting change.
In a survey conducted by me in November 2020 for a project, I had asked, – ‘Has the Pandemic changed your views about how to live your life?’
Almost 90% of the respondents said, ‘Yes, in some way!’
55% of the respondents said, they have Re-evaluated their priorities, and 49% want to keep their needs simple. 47% value their family more. One can easily see the trend of people’s priorities shifting towards Life and relationships.
No doubt, the only way to heal is to normalize life, to get back to work, socialise, network, and engage. But Covid has left a long-lasting change in the psychics of people. Before Covid, in the WORK-LIFE balance, WORK was in the lead role and LIFE was in the supporting role, but post-Covid, LIFE has come in the lead role and WORK in the Supporting role.
While Organizations are calling back their employees to the offices, but in the last two years it’s the employees who have gone through a major transformation at each level -mental, physical, emotional, relationship, or spiritual, they are no longer the same as they were prior to Covid. Are Organizations prepared to handle the new Avatar of their employees?
Rakhi Sunil Kumar
Note-
This is in series to my research paper A study of Nextgen ‘Balance of Life’ Workplace in Indian Organizations is published by International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications. Research paper can be downloaded http://www.ijsrp.org/research-paper-1021.php?rp=P11811719