Be future ready are you worried that the beginning of the end of wfh is here or that it will carry on

Be future ready are you worried that the beginning of the end of wfh is here or that it will carry on

Diversity has acquired a new face in companies – some employees are working entirely on site, others entirely at home, and still others in hybrid mode, clocking in only select days or hours at the physical office. An air of provisionality hangs heavy around all of them, fingers crossed that the dip in cases will outlast the festival season. But either way, as more and more companies complete vaccination drives, white-collar employees are now asking if this is the beginning of the end of WFH.

What bears reminding is that the experiment that was forced upon us all early last year was one that select employees and managers had been pushing long before the pandemic. If the former were pursuing a better work-life balance the latter, cutting costs. The pandemic has allowed both these groups to win over untold numbers, but not unanimity by any means. Responding to diverse employees’ preferences will require companies to assess their job profiles and compensations in complex ways. Employees will also be asked to show matching flexibility, such as openness to retraining and adjusting to different work modes within a team.

If the future of work is hybrid, and the many unknowns make for anxiety, the upsides are equally notable. With a recent survey by a recruitment firm suggesting that the India Inc hiring from locations other than where it has offices has shot up to 35% from just about 5% pre-pandemic, folks from Tier II and III cities could see an expansion of good opportunities right where they are. The history of work shows that every age expresses sorrowful nostalgia for bygone conditions, yet this does not preclude job satisfaction levels from rising. If some of us are in office and some at home, we can happily continue hybrid meetings interlaced with, ‘Can you hear me?’