COVID-19: 'Work From Home' is here, will it stay?

With the number of coronavirus cases rising almost every hour in India Work From Home (WFH) is making a buzz in boardrooms. Not just private companies, the Central Government has also asked 50 per cent of Group B and Group C employees to work from home. It has also requested States to enforce work from home for private sector employees except those working in emergency or essential services.

Hyderabad:More than anything, novel coronavirus or COVID-19 is disrupting the way businesses are operating across the world.

With the number of coronavirus cases rising almost every hour in India, Work From Home (WFH), which is a form of ‘social distancing’, is making a buzz in boardrooms that are struggling to find solutions for disruptions caused by the virus.

Falling in line, companies across the spectrum – Reliance, Tata, Wipro, etc have initiated WFH protocol in response to evolving coronavirus situation. Not just private companies, the Central Government has also asked 50 per cent of Group B and Group C employees to work from home beginning on 19 March as a preventive measure.

It has also requested States to enforce work from home for private sector employees except those working in emergency or essential services.

WFH Not New

In COVID-19 driven WFH, market analysts see a silver lining of new work culture. “Enablers for virtual interactions and collaborations through digital like video calling, telepresence, zoom, WebEx, social hangouts etc have always been there but did not gain adoption. It is bound to change. Good thing is that it needs only adaptation in using them & not innovation”, said Rajesh Dhuddu, Global Practice Leader, Blockchain, Tech Mahindra.

Saying remote working has yet not taken off in a big way in India, Rajesh observes “Government agencies and regulators that had stringent provisions to facilitate WFH are proactively liberalising them”.

Reduce Costs

For businesses that have been struggling for over one year due to weak demand COVID-19 proves to be a constraint on recovery efforts.

Reduced expenses on rent, electricity, house-keeping, transportation and other overheads on the back of WFH will help companies in reducing overall costs and become competitive in the market.

Expenses incurred by companies operating out of shared workspaces, which runs up to Rs 10,000 per one workstation, prove the point.

Apart from saving costs, WFH is environment friendly.

In cities like Delhi and Bangalore traffic snarls have been a major issue resulting in both air and sound pollution, killing productive hours and de-energising the employees.

What employees are thinking?

According to Monster India, one of the leading job portals in India about 60% of Indian working professionals surveyed rate their current work-life-balance average to terrible.

The report further states that 78 % of the surveyed preferred to be segmentors (people who create clearly defined boundaries between their personal and work lives) over blenders (people who blur the lines between work and home and easily navigate their way between the two).

Legal Context

Dr. Syam Sundar, Ex-Deputy Chief Labour Commissioner, explains that in existing labour laws there is no such explicit provision related to work from home; however, he also confirms companies can allow their employees to work from home on a need basis where the employee can be considered as ‘on duty’ given their service conditions are not affected, including salary.

He is also of the view that WFH makes sense for white-collar jobs and bears much relevance for IT and IT enabled services.

Notwithstanding, WFH has its flip side as some professionals cite of getting isolated and missing on the positive office vibes.

Some add lots of importance to workplace interactions that are helpful and at times crucial to bring out the best in them.

Similarly, there are some sectors where work from home has its own complications and limitations.

No doubt there are pros and cons for everything, the COVID-19 scare has made Work From Home a new normal.

We will only have to see if it leaves an indelible mark on the HR policies of companies once the panic subsides.

Till then, its work from home.