Perhaps the most advantageous aspect of a conventional workplace setup was the comfort of “leaning back on others tied up in the same cause”, and gaining strength from each other, visibly, writes Phani Medicharla, as he explores the contrast between the conventional workplaces and the new normal introduced by the pandemic and how organisations can repurpose themselves towards purpose-driven ethical enterprises

One of the fondest impressions from the final year at college, was the interview with the dignitaries of the TCS Interview Panel. For a free-spirited college student who was all set to land with one of the US Universities to do Masters, as was the tradition of the time, everything about the panellists looked oddly awe-inspiring — their attire, their demeanour, the high pride of the TCS/Tata Value system in their words, their knowledge and experience — left a lasting impression on me. ‘I should someday become as professional and respected, as them’, I thought. Visiting the TCS office shortly after, going through the on-boarding process, the initial learning program and the first project at work — all had distinct experiences and touchpoints which sometimes gently, but not always so, unravelled the real-world and helped transition from a life of education to the one of industry.

Conventions and Patterns for every occasion

The first thing I remember as I set foot in the huge work-zone in my first assignment was the bulletin board on the wall with “Star of the Month” awardee pictures. A team of over 70 associates, along with the leadership team was gathered around to celebrate three associates who surpassed expectations and did a great job. ‘We should be up there on that board some time’, I mentioned to my friend.

Growing up in the company and as we moved from one role to the other, there were touchpoints of ‘culture transference’ and ‘learning’, constantly — a compassionate senior popping by to check on how we were doing, frequent team meetings, stepping out for frequent breaks with friends, bidding farewell to associates leaving for other assignments, feedback sessions, town-halls, brainstorming ideas, solving difficult problems, celebrating successes together and so on. These touchpoints and behavioural patterns helped us to understand and to some extent live the meaning behind the words like “value system” or “mission” or “culture” and slowly helped us over a period “be the company that we were working for”.

Inspiration, especially during tough times

Watching some of our senior leaders walk into work every day, or deliver a message during team meetings, a quick 2-minute interaction with them in the hallway — all contributed to building a mental model of professionalism, belongingness and the way to approach work itself. Phrases like, “do the right thing”, “what is the customer value here?”, “why should they give you time?”, “simplify the proposition”, “we get things done” and so on, uttered during times of crisis with “visible” conviction, acted as guiding beacons to constantly inspire the teams and make them believe that difficult problems can be overcome. The office buildings, the meeting rooms, break out areas, cafeterias, even the communication equipment — themselves acted as symbols of strength and rejuvenation for the associates to draw constant inspiration from.

The Conventional Proximity-Safety-Net

Perhaps the most advantageous aspect of conventional workplace setup was the comfort of “leaning back” on others tied up in the same cause, and gaining strength from each other, visibly. A quick huddle would charge up an operations team to take the most daunting issue by the horn and face it. A comforting nod from the manager signalling, “I am around, don’t worry, let’s keep going”, would make the most difficult problems seem vulnerable. The momentum of the workplace wouldn’t let “tiredness” settle in, and there was never a thought of “giving up”.

During the times of the tangible workplaces, an associate’s journey starting from the day of job interview all the way through building a career and several work-relationships, was wrought with several of the above touchpoints and patterns that profusely supported the influx of culture and purpose. Depending upon the scale and nature of work at one’s organisation, the flavour of the above touchpoints and patterns might vary. However, in came the pandemic and invoked digital workspaces bringing the yesteryear patters to a crawl to a large extent and ushered in a new era of ‘remoteness’. But before we totally buy into that argument and ‘blame-it-on-the-pandemic’, let us pause and reflect on whether the drift to remoteness was beginning to appear in the minds of the associates even before most organisations switched gear to remote work.

Drifting to Remoteness

With the tremendous technological advancements, especially in the ability to connect, conduct and interact from anywhere, securely and seamlessly, the conventional workplaces were waiting to be made archaic. Increasing need for digitisation and emergence of digital ecosystems, ever expanding possibilities to leverage new tech and market pressures on growth and transformation meant that the companies must be on their edge to tap the potential and stay relevant. At least two things ensued — spike in global demand for talent and the need to embrace new and smart models to work - both having their share of influence on the conventional workplace setups.

Embracing Talent — From wherever it can be found

While every organisation approaches the paradigm of in-house human capital management differently, most organisations also tap into multiple external channels to constantly on-board new talent to deal with specialised demands or to optimise their run costs. And these external channels rely on sub-channels and Geo-specific sources to fulfil the demands themselves. Although this is not a new phenomenon, the spike in global demand, and the paucity of resources in-house, has taken this to a new level. Teams are getting diversified and distributed, with minimal opportunity to the conventional touchpoints and patterns to exist. Workflow management has shifted to a large extent on what gets assigned in your digital workflow manager, and unless an associate takes up the initiative to demand the big picture, most times, it barely comes to the fore. This makes it convenient for the individuals to keep to themselves and not feel part of a bigger agenda or value system.

Another equally interesting facet that is promoting ‘remoteness’ is, how the talent, whether in-house or externally sourced is employed. If the onus is on constantly driving efficiencies and maximising returns (given the constraints) only, it tends to push the organisations to look at each associate as a ‘work package’ waiting to be explored, and their entire time ‘at work’ is oriented towards extracting the same. This leaves no room for engaging the associates in other activities that contribute to a holistic work culture. And with the models shifting heavily towards source-on-need basis, time and material or even subscription-based charging, the onus on the associates is strictly on constantly delivering ‘work packages’ and justifying their hours.

On the other hand, this has also promoted the associates, especially contract workers, to reimagine their contribution in terms of how much remuneration they can derive out of their ‘work-hours’ and find avenues to maximize the same, with minimal burden on the value/purpose that their work is contributing to.

In certain industries and organisations, this shift over the years has posed a serious threat to the healthy circulation of organisational culture, the breadth of potentialities in an organisation and the belongingness felt by associates. The constantly increasing rates of attrition across most companies is but a testimony to this phenomenon. Disengaged associates are effortlessly and dispassionately moving from one company to the other fully exploiting the market opportunity and touchless digital interventions.

Companies are trying to counter it by bringing in focused initiatives, competing with higher remuneration or other incentives and standing up executive roles with ‘people’ focus, but unless an associate is touched in the ‘day-in-their-lives’ via these initiatives genuinely, these initiatives tend to miss the mark or at best yield temporary results.

Now, the pandemic has certainly acted as a super-catalyst to speed up the facet of remoteness with most associates moving out of the conventional bind of the workplace. Before we delve into how organisations can counter this when associates start to come back to work in the post-pandemic world, let us examine a few (non-exhaustive) of the unstated assumptions of the conventional workplace wisdom that need to be carefully and contextually (based on the nature of business of the organisation) re-looked at:

• Associates fully understand the company values, purpose, and mission and see themselves as a contributing element to those facets
• Associates join the organisation as they sense a fulfilment beyond monetary gains
• l There is no need to put extra effort in communicating the company values and contextualize them to the day-to-day work situations, associates infer them on their own via on-the-job interactions
• Having good values, mission and vision is enough — they automatically get seeped into the organisation and get passed on from one organisational tier to the next
• Team alignment and cultural alignment is automatic when associates spend considerable time with a company
• Frameworks/processes of appreciation and recognition can be globally applied to all associates in the company and result in same satisfaction levels
• The influence of leadership and organisational policies is inferred automatically by the associates by virtue of the organisational setup and structures
• Associates consciously shoulder the brand image and ethics of the organisation in their day-to-day conduct

The Conventional Patterns Replaced

Most associates that have transitioned to remote work are staying close to families, near and extended, and for the first time in a long-time, are spending more time at home than ever before. This has naturally allowed the older patterns like fighting stress, appreciation, finding comfort with a co-worker, breakout routines and so on, replaced by interactions with family or attending to family priorities. There are multiple versions on how this has led to increased or decreased stress levels depending upon who is asked this question or when it is asked. Certain organisations have also announced a permanent work-from-home looking at the powerful new pattern of flexibility and comfort that work-from-home has ushered in, just in under a couple of years. And where there is ‘return-to-work’ on the cards, organisations should carefully review the pre-pandemic touchpoints with the above perspective and prepare to welcome the associates holistically.

Let us now look at certain broad approaches on how organisations can approach the post-pandemic phase to nurture work ethics and company culture (either in back-to-office or remote-work scenarios):

• Coming back to work can be made as a unique experience, a celebration. We are perhaps dealing with once in a hundred-year phenomenon, and making it memorable for the associates will help them ease into the post-pandemic workspaces
• Allowing a gradual settling time back to work, and embracing the unique needs of the associates, subject to the company policies and possibilities
• Initiatives to re-introduce the ‘purpose’ and ‘values’ of the organisation. Reimagining and enabling some of the key operative roles close to the associates, like project managers or delivery leads, as Chief Purpose Officers, who can continuously help reinforce the right behaviours and help the associates make a connect with company values and purpose
• Expanding the boundary of what is considered as “a team” to include the entire ecosystem of partners and suppliers into that construct. Understanding their value system and helping them understand yours will have a greater impact when associates from different teams interact with each other
• Empowering the decision-making roles in the organisation to perform to the values of the organisation. Associates have a greater degree of adopting the company values when they see their immediate supervisors and managers being empowered to do the same
• Establishing forums where associates from different teams and groups can share positive narratives with each other
• Freeing up time selectively for key roles to allow for activities that allow for a “holistic engagement” with the associates and make them feel taken care of. Helping the associates perceive that their company cares for them is a big win for the organisations and in turn will ensure that the associates reciprocate with their “belongingness”

In fact, my book, The Conscientious Manager: Nurturing Workplace Ethics and Synergies discusses several bottlenecks/derailers to the workplace morals and offers key resonating actions to both individual associates as well as leaders in helping create a more nurturing and ethical workplace. The themes of the book centre around creating a culture of workplace ethics covering a diverse set of topics, encouraging managers and their employees to establish a positive work environment where proficiency and productivity can thrive.

The writer is an avid writer in the world of Technology Consulting. He has recently published The Conscientious Manager: Nurturing Workplace Ethics and Synergies with SAGE Publications India. The views expressed in this article belong to the author alone and have no bearing on his affiliation to any organisation that he may be associated with