employees who want to give back to society.
Is this increased mindfulness of employee needs and wants a new trend created by the last two years? Or is it something that's been going on since before the pandemic? My view is that overall companies have become more mindful of their employee needs because of the pandemic. We cannot deny the fact that the impact of the pandemic has been huge on employees, businesses as well as the whole
happened. In these organisations, like ours, the awareness of employee needs and the emphasis on employee centricity has actually become more focused and it's also been accelerated. Hybrid work, for instance, might otherwise have taken us four years to reach this stage, but now we are here within a span of two years. And now we're also going through another important stage where we are asking employees to come back to work, and at this point companies really need to listen to employees and help
of society. If you just think of how overnight, your home became your workplace – that alone was not an easy change for anyone or even any organisation to deal with. Also, the constant view into what's happening into people's personal lives has brought more focus around being mindful and having greater sensitivity around employees' needs. But I also think we cannot really attribute all of it to the pandemic, because many organisations, especially the progressive ones, have been doing a lot even before the pandemic
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The awareness of employee needs and the emphasis on employee centricity has become more focused and it's also been accelerated
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belong. Having employee resource groups to encourage dialogues around the needs of underrepresented groups – women, LGBTQ, and others – or campaigns to raise awareness of allyship, has really helped us create a culture of inclusion. Also, in today's context, I think inclusion needs to be seen from a wider lens, because normally when we talk about inclusion, we focus on these groups, but in the current working environment, we have to consider the needs of other categories of employees as well – new hires for example, will face additional challenges when they come into a hybrid setup, and we need to do extra to make sure that they feel interconnected and included in the organisation. 4. Giving back to society. I think there's a trend where people want to contribute and give back to the society in which they live, and so we have to create a culture where employees feel that they are able to connect with the purpose of the organisation and build upon that to give back to society. We need to help them create and uphold that bigger picture of life. So we need to listen to our employees and find ways to provide the support they need to do that. For example, we introduced a voluntary leave policy last year for our
them navigate this change. Because many employees are still trying to balance their expectations and their work requirements in this new scenario.
Do you think this employee centricity will be sustained going forward? Or will we end up reverting to the pre-pandemic situation? To be honest, I don't think we can go back to the pre pandemic stage, because so many things have changed. Employee expectations have changed drastically in the last two years. Previously, when people were may 2022 |
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