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Mr Ramkumar Shankar, Managing Director, Chemplast Sanmar Ltd, talks about the evolution of industries and how employee expectations and outlook have changed in recent times.
T
here are many clichés in life, in general, and in industry in particular. One of the most wellknown clichés in recent times is the term, ‘The
New Normal.’ This is a term that one just cannot escape from. It is used to refer from commodity prices and logistics to environmental norms and just about every business situation. While this may seem a highly overused term, one cannot escape the fact that indeed there have been significant shifts in industry over the last many years. Conditions have changed; needs have changed; approaches and methodologies have changed. The tools at our disposal have evolved. Opportunities which were not there earlier have emerged and where opportunities emerge, so do challenges. It would be interesting to take a giant step back and understand what really has changed so much. What is this new normal? For that, we would need to look well into the past and understand the path that has been traversed. Klaus Schwab, the Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, in a very widely read article in 2016, identified four phases of industrial growth. 10
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The Four Industrial Revolutions The first phase, which he calls the first industrial revolution and what we say as Industry 1.0, saw the advent of the Machine Age, with the usage of water and steam power. This was the first significant step moving away from the dependence on human and animal power to mechanical power. This opened up huge new possibilities in expanding output, as one was no longer restricted by what was physically possible. This was a phase that ran from the mid-18th to around the mid19th century. Sometime around the mid-19th century, the
next
phase—Industry
2.0
began.
This
transformation was driven by the proliferation of electric power in industry. Railroads connected places and enabled movement of goods and people, thereby reducing distances as a constraint. Telecommunications evolved further, linking distances. All of these enabled mass production and further industrialization. Industry 2.0 went on till the mid-20th century, interrupted by two World Wars. Progress was obviously incremental during this phase. Once World War II ended, the next
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era began. This was Industry 3.0, which ushered in the
return on capital and returns to labour. Many
‘Digital Era.’ This saw a massive growth of electronics
traditional jobs are being pushed to extinction while
and information technology. The shift from analog to
new job opportunities open up. Reskilling is of
digital progressed at an extremely fast pace during this
paramount importance. No individual in the workforce
period. Industrial processes changed and the size of
can afford complacence or hope to remain relevant
both manufacturing units, and indeed companies,
without effort. The pace of change has shot up
increased multifold. In communication, transportation,
multifold. If one does not keep up, it is very easy to be
product discovery and delivery and in many other
left behind. This dizzying rate of change places
areas, including the way we lived, there were seismic shifts. Maximum disruption happened during this period,
With the world in their hands,
and people had to evolve quickly to live with and
expectations of the workforce
manage this disruption. We are now in what Klaus
today have gone up and
Schwab called the Fourth Industrial Revolution of
acceptance levels are very
industry or Industry 4.0. This builds on the third phase,
different from what they were.
further digitizing the word. This is the era of metaverses and to quote Mr.Schwab, 'the fusion of technologies that is blurring the lines between the physical, the digital and the biological spheres.’
Today's workforce has a respect for deeds, not for positions, persons or even age.
In this current milieu, the gap opens up between BUSINESS MANDATE
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There is already a talk about
force. They would be a subject for a conclave in the
Industry 5.0, which talks of even
years to come!
deeper cooperation between
This demographic classification is important
people and machines. But what
because, when one was born defines the kind of change
about the people side of
that one has seen and the thinking that defines the
industrialization?
response to this change. For instance, I would qualify as a Gen X. We as a generation were needed to adapt to so many things—in communication, from the rotary dial phones for which we needed to reserve and wait;
enormous stress and strain on the workforce, especially
(How many of us remember the OYT and non-OYT
mentally and brings into sharp focus the need to
scheme?) to the push-button phones to pagers, which
address the impact on mental health as well.
we in India have mostly skipped; to mobile telephones
Those then were the four broad phases of evolution
to now the era of smart phones.
that the industry has been through—Industry 1.0—the
We moved from manual typewriters to electronic
mechanization phase, followed by the electrification
typewriters to computers that filled the room, to floppy
phase, then the automation phase and now the
diskettes and all the way to where we are today. In
digitization phase. There is already a talk about
television, we had just Doordarshan. We have seen an
Industry 5.0, which talks of even deeper cooperation
explosion in programming channels to where we are
between people and machines. But what about the
today. The advent of the Internet and World Wide Web
people side of industrialization? As the ways of
have essentially democratized access to information
business have changed, so too have people, their
and knowledge and created a level playing field. We
attitudes and approaches. They too have evolved with
have witnessed tectonic development in so many areas.
the times, especially in the latter part of the 20th Indeed, the Baby Boomers and the Gen Xers have
century.
seen the maximum changes in one lifetime, in almost
Baby Boomers to Gen Alpha
all spheres of life. Now, multiply that by a factor of 10
Demographers have these very engaging labels by
and that is the speed at which development is
which they classify people since World War II. They
happening. That is what the millennials and the post
start with those born between 1946 and 1964 and call
millennials are going through. The workplace has also
them the Baby Boomers. These are people who were
seen the same rapid changes over the past few decades,
born during the economic boom that came about post-
starting from the very products that are produced.
war. The generation that came after this, those born
From products being manufactured to meet existing
between 1965 and 1980, were turned Gen X. Following
needs, today needs are being created around products
them are the millennials or Gen Y born between 1981
or services that have been already designed. Cab hailing
and 1996 and then the post-millennials born between
services, smartphones, tablets, etc., are all prime
1997 and 2012.
The next generation—Generation
examples. Similarly, the existing paradigms in the
Alpha, spanning 2012 to now is not yet in the work
workforce have changed dramatically both due to
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changes in the industrial construct and due to the
Already businesses in the US and Europe are being roiled by
evolution of employee expectations.
what is being called the Great
The world in your hands
Resignation. In the US alone,
The personality and character of today's workforce
post the pandemic, within the
have also changed dramatically. The explosion in
last six months between April
smartphones has meant that today's employees are
and September 2021, it is
very well informed and exposed to what is happening
estimated that 24 million
elsewhere. We would all remember this very early
workers have resigned and
cellular services ad in India, which said karlo duniya
exited the work force.
mutthi mein—that is, “Take the world in your hands.” Truly, that was prescient. For, that is exactly what has happened.
this. All of this has been further complicated by the
With the world in their hands, expectations of the
Covid pandemic and the havoc that it has brought on
workforce today have gone up and acceptance levels
health—both physical and mental—and the restrictions
are very different from what they were. Today's
on so many things that we have so long taken for
workforce has a respect for deeds, not for positions,
granted. These restrictions have pushed us to make so
persons or even age. One can no longer expect or
many adjustments to how we do things—be it at home
demand respect because of the position one holds or
or at the workplace. These are likely to pose a fresh set
one's seniority. Respect has to be earned. There is very
of challenges, whenever the world ultimately emerges
little fear of losing jobs, or of saying the inappropriate
from the pandemic. I hope that Omicron is the last of
things or of just about anything.
these variants.
They don’t stand and wait
The great resignation
The millennials and post-millennials have the
Already businesses in the US and Europe are being
confidence, maybe sometimes not so well founded on
roiled by what is being called the Great Resignation. In
reality, which shapes their behavior and approach to
the US alone, post the pandemic, within the last six
situations. Emotional connects are less of a given than
months between April and September 2021, it is
before. There is more of a transactional construct to
estimated that 24 million workers have resigned and
most interactions and relationships. There is an
exited the work force. This extraordinary situation has
immediacy of needs bordering on impatience. John
been attributed by sociologists to the pandemic induced
Milton's lines on 'they also serve who only stand and
existential questions that people have grappled with
wait,' would fall on deaf ears today. For, very few are
and the decision of many to just abandon the stresses
prepared to wait for their turn in the sun.
of making a living.
Walls are breaking down, opinions are freely shared
A similar situation is actually playing out in China,
and social media offers a more-than-ready platform for
though not much is heard about that, with what is called the ‘lying flat movement.’ This started as a push
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back against the 9-9-6 schedule or 9 to 9 work day, six
to work for a company that prioritises outcomes over
days a week.
output—In other words, in organizations that value action over activity.
Life‐work balance There is a shift in work focus worldwide from a work-life balance to a life-work balance. The priorities have changed. Businesses are now grappling with decisions on the balance between working from office and working from home.
Thus, this is just a small example of how employee outlook and expectations have changed in recent times. Not all of them may be acceptable; not all of them may even
be
practical
but
the
change
has
to
be
acknowledged, identified and definitely cannot be ignored. This then is ‘The New Normal,’ a rapidly
An article in the Harvard Business Review in May
changed
and
changing
industrial
and
business
2021 on ‘what your future employees most want,’ talks
environment and a highly evolved, confident and non-
of a talent accelerator study conducted among over
conventional workforce and a complex interplay
2,000 knowledge workers and 500 HR Directors in large
between the two.
corporations based in the US. As per this study, 88% of knowledge workers stated that when searching for a new position, they will look for one that offers complete flexibility in working hours and location. 83% feel that workers would be more likely to move out of cities and other urban locations, if they can work remotely. Interestingly, over 85% said they would prefer
Business leaders would need to manage this intricate and delicately balanced equation between business requirements in a world which is in churn and employee sensitivities and needs. It will not be easy. But as yet another advertisement goes, 'Impossible is nothing.'
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