The definition of ‘work’ has changed and will continue to change as pandemic-driven trends evolve. Here are the top trends driving organisations’ strategies for the coming months.

he combination of the COVID-19 pandemic and the off-site working it necessitated, the ‘Great Resignation’ it spurred, and the ongoing digitisation process, has greatly modified the way ‘work’ is defined. Many organisations now have to scramble to implement wide-ranging changes to stay relevant.

We acquaint you with the top trends that indicate what organisations need to do in this situation of rapid flux.

Finding the tricky balance between physical and remote working models will be key

Employers are experimenting with new work models like hybrid work, gig work, and part-time work, with the hybrid model emerging as the work model of the future. The transition to hybrid work is already underway, and is certain to become a permanent feature for organisations who find that a flexible work culture will enhance employee productivity, satisfaction, and work-life balance.

“Hybrid-working culture is and will be the future for those businesses who want to reach a state of normalcy in this new normal. Additionally, as these changes take centre stage, employers will need to further understand that the new way of working will have its fair set of challenges. To help employees make a smooth transition, employers will need to take on a more empathetic leadership approach, put greater focus on health, wellness, recognition, and overall work-life balance of their employees. Taking on more employee-friendly initiatives will be an effective way to ensure the success of a hybrid-working model,” says Birlasoft Chief Delivery Officer Shreeranganath Kulkarni.

Fluid workforce the norm for the future?

The fluid workplace of the future places limited importance on location/geography, and employers will explore various work models to stay competitive.

“New work models like gig working (use of contractual workers and freelancers), hybrid working, and part-time working are in the exploratory stage while outsourcing jobs to agencies/partnering with companies emerge as a norm. However, employers may still construe freelancers as unemployed, and hence a full-time worker is apprehensive about making this transition,” says the Randstad – Future of Work Report.

Flexibility wins

Mercer|Mettl CEO Siddhartha Gupta says the era of ‘9 to 5’, ‘Monday to Friday’ is coming to an end.

The year 2022 will be the year of digital nomadism where employees will have the freedom to customise their work and career experiences with their well-being at the centre of it.

“In addition, we will see an increase in the implementation of a ‘Listening Culture’ .i.e. the formation of workplaces guidelines and policies based on employee feedback.  Fluid hierarchy and organisational structures will also come into play with an emphasis on transparency and accountability. And lastly, re-conceptualising of productivity will take place. This will be done because the modern workforce is digital and distributed across the world. Furthermore, the notion that productivity equates to the number of hours is outdated,” he adds.

Upskilling on the radar

Since the advent of the pandemic, uncertainty has been constant. The result? Agility and upskilling have taken centre stage.

“As digital transformation plays a role in organisations’ efforts to recover and be more resilient, and hybrid multicloud, security, automation, and artificial intelligence become even more important, professionals have felt compelled to learn a host of new technical and soft skills. Hence, upskilling continues to be paramount as we navigate the health crisis and companies continue to prioritise skill-based hiring and skill-building to not just make the most of their digital transformation efforts, but also drive greater value for their clients,” says Nutanix People Business Partner Head India Ramya Menon.

Lendingkart CTO Giridhar Yasa adds that upskilling yourself on the job is very important. “Externship is an emerging trend in this context. Doing an externship is a great way to get paid while learning on the job. It also helps upskill and become ready for an even better opportunity. There are many good companies that enable externship for young professionals. We, at Lendingkart, value candidates who have shown an attitude towards constant learning,” he says.

Which technical skills will really matter?

In the pandemic’s wake, every business has transformed into a technology business and companies have been embracing digitalisation to stay relevant and operate sustainably. Analysts predict that direct investments in digital transformation initiatives will continue to see strong growth and form 55 per cent of all investments in information and communications technology by the end of 2024.

Even though the business focus varies across industries, the technical skills they require to fulfil their digital goals are generally similar across the board.

“These include artificial intelligence (AI), IoT, AR/VR, RPA, mobile engineering and machine learning – skills that are largely in demand because they touch upon multiple aspects of building a successful business in the digital era. In light of this sudden need for talent, organisations are looking to build global teams through Global Capability Centres (GCCs). India is already synonymous with GCCs and will continue to lead as a preferred GCC destination, thanks to an abundance of talent, Tier-I & Tier-II city infrastructure, government support and a thriving startup ecosystem,” says ANSR’s Head of HR Operations and Talent Management Sukumar Payala.

Virtual working appeals but human connect will never lose its sheen

Virtual working has espoused the virtues of flexibility, which were hitherto not so appreciated, and hence would find greater acceptance in futuristic workplaces. Birlasoft Chief People Officer Arun Dinakar Rao, however, feels that humans are social animals and barring a few, who may not have this primary driver, most of us would look to satisfy these needs.

“Human connections have a huge upside to productivity as we have seen in team productivity levels when people dynamically collaborate – the best outcomes have come when people whiteboard their thoughts in a closed room with a unified dream. On the other extreme, haven’t we observed the yearning for a human shoulder to cry on when we find ourselves in a hole or with our backs to the walls, and digital modes unable to assist us in these situations? Hence, I believe that leveraging technology or otherwise, people would continue to look for human connections at workplaces,” says Rao.

The much needed soft skills

Multiple reports state that over 50 per cent of IT employees need significant reskilling and upskilling – not just in technical capabilities, but also in interpersonal and soft skills.

“Besides, skills such as creativity, critical thinking, intellectual curiosity, innovation mindset, empathy, and decision-making, will be most in-demand by the organisation. A hybrid work model makes it important for employees to be digitally savvy, emotionally strong and possess social skills. Having a continuous learning mindset, flexibility to perform in challenging circumstances, and willingness to adapt to situations when things don’t go as planned define the modern emerging hybrid workforce,” says Satyanarayanan Visvanathan, Senior Vice President, Head of HR (Global) and Head of Corporate Quality, CSS Corp

As per Umar Ali Shaikh, the CEO of Atos India Pvt Ltd and Head of Growing Markets – Country Cluster India, Head of India National Business, adaptability bundled with perseverance will be the most desirable attribute at the forefront of the way employees and employers both need to be aligned.

But he notes that adaptability is “a hard trait to comprehend, as it involves many aspects in the preview of soft skills that professionals would need going forward”.

Diversity and inclusion at work, mental well-being the primary focus

Employers need to think about D&I initiatives in the new normal, along with how mental well-being discussions can be normalised, and by clubbing these aspects with others to devise what it takes to become an employer of choice for the next generation of employees.

As per the Randstad report, the post-COVID workplace will see more conversations around mental health and higher acceptance of its impact on work and productivity of the employee, and require support mechanisms at work, building skills like empathy and compassion, and providing personal space to employees as ways for employers to prioritise mental well-being.

“Employees are the backbone for a successful business, and we want to ensure that our employees get the necessary benefits, the flexibility of choice, a true alignment of their aspirations with and what they do, psychological safety, and well-being at their workplace,” says InMobi Group CHRO Sahil Mathur.

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If you are thinking, what new things we can expect in the upcoming 2022, we need to trace back to the source of such hits and trials — the pandemic. Experts say the “new world order” we are all going to see in 2022 will not only be driven by what we learnt from the previous year, but it will be an amalgamation of both the years 2020 and 2021.

Several in the Information Technology (IT) sector proved that it’s a general practitioner of all experiments. You name it, firing in bulk, it’s IT. Hiring in thousands, it’s IT. Announcing permanent work from home (WFH), its tech sector, among others.

And if you are thinking, what new things we can expect in the upcoming 2022, we need to trace back to the source of such hits and trials — the pandemic. Experts say the “new world order” we are all going to see in 2022 will not only be driven by what we learnt from the previous year, but it will be an amalgamation of both the years 2020 and 2021.

What can we have in hiring trends?

The IT sector saw a drastic change in its talent management strategy – from mass layoffs in 2020 to mass recruitment in 2021. As per Monster Employment Index data, compared to June 2021, July 2021 witnessed an overall monthly growth of 4 per cent in hiring. While, overall job postings have also improved by 8 per cent year-on-year.

According to the report, the IT – Hardware, Software industry witnessed the highest growth year-on-year with 39 per cent increase in the hiring of professionals, with a notable growth in metropolitan cities.

To tackle the surge in the demand for resources, companies are investing in fresher hiring, and also upskilling existing talent, feels Shyam Verma, Global HR Head at JK Tech. “Multiple reports talk about a 12 per cent surge in the HR market in the next 6 years,” he said.

Verma said there was an expedited demand in 2021 for specific capabilities and skill sets across the IT job market, due to the massive digitalization wave that was felt globally. “Adapting to the digitised trends was not difficult for the IT Industry. But HR operations also had to be made effective and agile, to meet the high demand and unique skill set,” he added.

Thendral Rajendran, Vice President and Regional Head – Talent Acquisition, CSS Corp, is of a different view. She believes the market is employee-driven now and attracting top-notch talent, increasing their knowledge and skills, retaining them becomes a key factor for any organisation which strives for growth.

In October 2021, CSS Corp announced it is looking to hire 3,000-odd employees this financial year, out of which approximately 60 per cent will be for its India footprint. A majority of the hiring is to be focused on engineers. The company is also looking to hire non-engineering graduates.

“We are no different as we continue to put in our efforts to sustain our 25-30 per cent YOY growth. With new engines of growth emerging, we will definitely look to sustain hiring for some time,” Rajendran said.

 

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Ethical AI can no longer be an afterthought for the enterprise; it must be built into the fabric of AI, believe experts.

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) begins to play a much larger role in our daily lives, streamlining our work, resolving customer issues, talking to us as companion bots, driving autonomous cars, and helping employees make more informed and faster decisions, ethical AI can no longer an afterthought for the enterprise; it must be built into the fabric of AI.

“AI ethics” refers to the organizational constructs that reaffirms commitment to corporate values, policies, codes of ethics, and guiding principles in the age of AI. These constructs set guidelines and governance for AI throughout the organization, from research and design, to build and train, to change and operate,” says Prashanth Kaddi, Partner, Deloitte India.

Issues around ethical AI have garnered more attention over the past several years with tech giants from Facebook to Google to Microsoft and IBM have already established and published principles to demonstrate to stakeholders — customers, employees, and investors — that they understand the importance of ethical or responsible AI.

The pandemic has further proved that businesses are betting big on AI, with analyst firms forecasting AI investments to grow from $27.23 billion in 2019 to $266.92 billion by 2027. And as investments increase, the need to give the technology a “moral compass” has become more urgent.

However, there is growing evidence that AI based applications can lead to increased discrimination based on gender, class, caste, ethnicity, religion and other identity forming characteristics. As Prof. Amit Prakash, Associate Professor and Coordinator at IIIT-Bangalore observes, “This can come through an inadequate attention to the processes associated with collection of digital data used to train the AI models as well as through algorithmic biases, which get introduced when design teams are not sensitive to, or even aware of, the diversity in the implementation context.”

Ethical AI trends

Talking about the ethical AI trends in the market, in 2022, Rahul Joshi, CTO, CSS Corp notes that there will be a high demand for responsible AI solutions in the market. Responsible AI solutions offer a range of capabilities that help companies turn AI principles such as fairness and transparency into consistent practices.

“If we look at the industry today, most tech or non-tech organizations generate consumer benefits and business value by leveraging 70% to 80% AI-led operations and creating AI-infused products and applications,” says Joshi, adding that while AI can be a helpful tool to increase productivity and reduce the need for people to perform repetitive tasks, it can also give rise to a host of significant unintended (or maliciously intended) consequences for individuals, organizations, and society.

He believes, there are many cases where the algorithms cause problems by replicating the (often unconscious) biases of the developers/programmers who built them. So, it’s crucial to ensure that comprehensive datasets are used. Most organizations have bias bounties in place, and this trend will run rampant in the coming years.

“To ensure that no company is marred with data or AI ethics enrage that can impact its reputation and revenue, it’s imperative to build an ethical & responsible AI,” says Joshi.

 

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