Letters of the month
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Top 10 workplace trends to look out for in 2021
I quite like where the workplace and culture are likely headed this year. Some much-needed change in outlook and approach to the overall employee experience. Nice to see a greater focus on digital workflows, flexible work schedules, wellness, diversity, and a decentralized workforce. While these segments aren’t absolutely new focus areas, the pandemic has surely fuelled greater attention to these aspects, which have been severely ignored for years, despite increased emphasis on crafting a delightful employee experience. 2020 didn’t just challenge survival but forced organizations to test and rewire mindsets and age-old practices that persisted despite questions around their relevance in the present times. Flexibility for one has always been looked upon as a benefit, an optional one at that, however, 2020 forced organizations to offer work from home to sustain and eventually, a handful realized the need and impact, and today remote working has experienced a paradigm shift from being a flexible perk to a globally accepted workplace norm. What now the workforce looks forward to is how soon other accompanying trends translate into reality. - Raunak Sapra
HR must argue for strategic salary hikes
Thank you for highlighting this obvious fact that seems to be ignored by a majority. The direct correlation between employee compensation, employee satisfaction, employee performance, and business performance is one that’s often misunderstood. And while a dip in business performance, especially an extreme one like that of 2020, resulted in dips in employee compensation, the reverse is seldom paid attention to. By designing workplace and workforce strategy in a manner that ensures strong employee compensation, leading to greater employee satisfaction, the result is better employee performance, eventually leading to exponential business growth, especially when such employee performance is replicated throughout the organization and independent functions. While 2020 suffered a setback, there are sectors that witnessed exponential growth, such as technology and healthcare, with other sectors gradually picking pace. - R Pandey 6
| FEBRUARY 2021
jANUARY 2021 issue
'Patriarchy in the region has not gone away'
Sadly not surprised. Several global leaders and researchers have been cautioning against the rising inequalities exacerbated by the pandemic, yet the degree of urgency to counter the consequences of the COVID outbreak on inclusion remains non-existent. Inclusion is becoming more of talk and less about action. We have seen several employers jump on the diversity bandwagon in the aftermath of the Black Lives Matter movement, much like the advocacy around LGBTQ+ inclusion around Pride Month. So, are we awaiting severe injustice and discrimination before we take sustainable change toward the advancement of women's rights and state of living and employment? Hasn’t that already been happening for decades now? - Varun tyagi
