Indeed, the employment relationship is constantly changing. First, there was the wave of resignations, which was followed by quiet quitting. In fact, three in five organisations that were part of the survey admitted to being concerned that quiet quitting will impact their business over the next year.

While more workers are seeking the hybrid model of work, employers are increasingly pressurising their employees to return to office. Why? Employers seem to be ill prepared to handle the issues related to hybrid working, which they are afraid will affect their businesses. With Millennials making up a significant portion of the workforce today, the tolerance of the workforce as well as expectations from the employment relationship have changed drastically. The youngsters in the workforce place a lot of emphasis on their employer’s duty of care. Not surprisingly, most of the employers agreed their employees expected them to shoulder duties towards them, which were once considered the responsibility of governments. Little wonder then that more employees today turn to their employers for reliable information than public services. That is why two-thirds of organisations that participated in the survey admitted that they are expected to look after their employees’ families and dependents in emergency situations or crises.

With many businesses and their employees caught in conflict zones, and other facing inflation and rising cost of living, employers need to now consider it part of their care duty to protect employees on these fronts too.

Employees expecting their employers to offer them support in terms of mental health and wellbeing is not something new. Given the volatile situations that prevail worldwide, these expectations have just gone up and become more urgent.

Clearly, it is not enough to simply offer occupational health services focused on the workplace and related environment. Employees, worldwide, need to be protected and nurtured, and they expect their employers to do it. If employers fail in this regard, they will see their best talent quitting and moving on to employers who can offer them the nurturing and protection they seek.

This will affect the productivity of organisations and result in increasing costs incurred to hire and train replacements for those who quit.

Seven per cent of the respondents of the International SOS survey—comprising risk decision makers responsible for employees, contractors, students, faculty and others within an organisation—were from Australia and New Zealand, 27 per cent from Asia, 24 per cent from Europe, 11 per cent from Africa, seven per cent from the Middle East and 23 per cent from the Americas.

The message is quite clear. The truly ‘great’ workplaces across the globe are the ones that will fulfil the expectations of the newer generations in the workforce, especially in terms of health and wellbeing. These are the employers that will grow their businesses and also care for their employees, and manage to come out triumphant in the ongoing talent war.

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A year later, in terms of awareness, Indian employees are found to be well aware of the skills that will be needed in the future, with a good 62 per cent admitting that the skills required for their jobs will undergo significant change over the next five years. About 69 per cent know very well how these requirements will alter. That means, more Indian professionals are aware in this regard as compared to their global counterparts (43 per cent). However, what is surprising is that one third of Indians seem to lack the confidence in their own ability to master newer skills, while globally, 18 per cent professionals share the same underconfidence.

The survey by PwC, called Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey 2023, covered 2,502 participants in India with 88% of them working fulltime jobs. Of these, 80 per cent were men and 20 per cent were women. About 54 per cent of the respondents were millennials, 21 per cent Gen X, 19 per cent Gen Z and six per cent were boomers.

While last year, the survey found that employees gave a lot of importance to organisational trust, innovation and hybrid work, this year their expectations seem to have changed. While a year ago, monetary rewards, meaningfulness of work and sense of fulfillment were the most important takes for them from the workplace, this year they wish for more empowerment. Their expectations from their work environment have evolved over the last 12 months. Now, they want their jobs/ employers to offer them equal opportunities to learn, grow and remain relevant and competitive, given the pace at which the world is changing.

This year, the report reveals that 42 per cent of employees in India are likely to change jobs in the next 12 months, as compared to 26 per cent of their global respondents. In India, a significant 69 per cent employees are likely to seek a pay hike, while globally, only 42 per cent will do so. A whopping 70 per cent in India will demand promotions, while globally, only 35 per cent will.

About 50 per cent of employees are unsure how viable their organisations will be a decade from now. Interestingly, 41 per cent of CEOs in India too question the viability of their organisations for more than 10 years!

The survey covered respondents belonging to seven industries, namely energy; utilities and resources; financial services; government or public-sector units;, healthcare; retail and consumer; technology; media and telecom;and industrial manufacturing (IM).

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India’s median salary hike is predicted to go up by 9.8 per cent in 2024, which is quite close to the actual salary hike in 2023, that is, 10 per cent.

The survey reveals that the IT sector will probably reduce hikes to 10 per cent, compared to the 11 to 12 per cent hikes of the past. This reduction is a result of close monitoring of cost structures in the IT space.

In other sectors, including pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, media, gaming and global captive centres (GCC) significant expansion is happening, as is reflected in their hiring outlook. Hiring is steady in the GCCs of financial services firms, mid-sized firms, as well as product and platform companies.

India’s voluntary attrition rate has fallen from 15.3 per cent in 2022 to 14.6 per cent in 2023. However, it still remains the highest in the Asia Pacific.

About 36 per cent of the companies surveyed anticipate good business-revenue outlook for the next one year compared to 42 per cent during the same time in 2022. About 28 per cent of companies are looking to hire in the next one year, while about 60 per cent have already increased team size in 2023 by more than what they did in 2022.

The WTW survey reveals that job opportunities remain highest in IT, engineering and sales in the next one year. While 61 per cent of the hot jobs will be in the IT space, 59.8 per cent will be in the engineering space, 42.9 per cent in sales, 38.6 per cent in technical skills trade, 11.8 per cent in finance, and 10.6 per cent in marketing. About 3.1 per cent of the hottest jobs in the next 12 months will be in human resources.

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According to IWG’s research, 88 per cent of hybrid workers engaged in ‘work from anywhere (WFA)’ last year, with 57 percent choosing to blend work and holidays. 

Across nine essential criteria, cities were rated on a scale of 1 to 10 for factors such as culture, climate, accommodation, transportation, broadband speed, food, access to flexible workspace and happiness.
According to research conducted by IWG, the top 3 global cities for accommodating hybrid workers are Barcelona, Toronto and Beijing. Among a pool of 26 notable cities, these three have secured the top positions. 

Barcelona has emerged as a coveted ‘workation’ destination, offering a vibrant cultural scene with historical landmarks. The city boasts pleasant weather and well-connected travel routes, all at an affordable cost. In contrast, Toronto excels with its top-tier ratings in lodging quality, overall contentment and an abundance of adaptable work environments. 

Meanwhile, Beijing showcased exceptional performance in categories such as cultural richness, housing, and transportation affordability. Fusing traditional and contemporary elements, Beijing’s world-class art scene, along with its array of galleries and cultural venues, magnetises travellers from around the globe. 

Notable Asian cities in the rankings included Jakarta (9th), Manila (13th), Mumbai (18th), Singapore (21st), and Hong Kong (22nd).

Cities listed: Barcelona, Toronto, Beijing, Milan, New York, Rio de Janeiro, Amsterdam, Paris, Jakarta, Lisbon

IWG research results shows that since 2022 almost 88 per cent of workers embrace the concept of working from anywhere or hybrid work after the surge in popularity of ‘workations’, where individuals work from overseas destinations while extending their vacations, has been propelled by the widespread adoption of hybrid work models.  Along with that 57 percent workers opted to elongate their holidays by working remotely from abroad. This emerging trend has notably gained traction within the office workforce. 

A significant majority of nearly 67 per cent of employees express confidence in their ability to effectively fulfil their job responsibilities while abroad. Moreover, an impressive 71 percent of respondents indicated that they would exclusively contemplate job opportunities that grant them the flexibility to work remotely, at least on a part-time basis. 

The research emphasises that a significant 76 per cent view an improved work-life balance as the primary benefit of remote work. Additionally, the urge to spend more time with loved ones while abroad stands at 52 per cent. Realising financial savings through off-peak travel is a prominent advantage for 47 per cent of respondents, while 30 per cent find extended vacations particularly appealing.

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Most of the respondents who never reported the incident(s) of discrimination considered the incident too minor or not grave enough to be reported or considered serious. About 27 per cent of those who did not report the incident, said they have had to face negative consequences of reporting such incidents in the past.

One out of four respondents feel that their current job is not commensurate with their qualifications and salary. That means, 21 per cent of the respondents admitted that their job wasn’t commensurate with their qualifications, while 69 per cent felt it was.

As per the Careerprism report, about 50 per cent of those interviewed had come ‘out’ at work and felt their employers had no qualms in supporting the LGBTQ+ community. This lot also has greater trust in their employers. They are also more satisfied with the increments or promotions they get and feel their performance is assessed in a fair manner. They appear more at ease interacting with their team leads /managers and co-workers. Not surprisingly, they experience low levels of stress, and their likelihood to remain with the same organization in the future is also high.

About 75 per cent of those surveyed had a year’s career gap before starting their first job. A significant 58 per cent feel their workplace is friendly to the LGBTQ+ community and they even have buddies at work.

About 46 per cent decide to join an organization based on the HR/diversity policies they offer. About 34 per cent are satisfied enough to continue working for the same employers.

About 70 per cent find they are doing meaningful work. While 42 per cent% agree that their work is meaningful, 28 per cent strongly agree, while 13% disagree that their work is meaningful. Only 12 per cent strongly agree that their work challenges them, while 38 per cent find it challenging. About eight per cent disagree that the work offers any challenge at all.

About 42 per cent have entrepreneurial aims in the near future, About 50 per cent have no entrepreneurial aims in the near future.

When it comes to workplace harassment, both LGBTQ+ and non-LGBTQ+ workers admit to facing harassment. While 45 per cent of LGBTQ+ workers experience verbal harassment, 62 per cent of non-LGBTQ workers do so. About 22 per cent of LGBTQ workers and 31 per cent non-LGBTQ workers face coercive or controlling behaviour at work. About 20 per cent LGBTQ+ and eight per cent non-LGBTQ workers face physical / sexual harassment or violence, while 13 per cent of LGBTQ+ face threats to personal safety.

Clearly, India Inc. is not doing enough. More inclusive policies have to be rolled out and the workforce needs to be sensitised and a change in mindset needs to be brought about.

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It appears so, since skills and capabilities will help bag jobs and not college degrees. A report by the World Economic Forum (WEF) said that half of the workers of the world will require to reskill by 2025, especially in the industrial sector where most processes and tasks are being automated. Many factories, worldwide, have already embraced artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and blockchain. However, they are also looking at reskilling their workers.

‘The Future of Work is Flexible’ report by Wired Consulting for Unilever, reveals that progressive factories around the world are using ‘low-code’ and ‘no-code’ development platforms, which let people with no experience or knowledge of writing codes to actually begin building apps and processes on their own. That means, in the future, employers will not need to hunt for skilled talent with specific expertise in developing AI solutions. Existing employees will simply need to learn how to use specific tools that will help them develop straightforward or basic solutions to their own unique or specific issues.

Importance is being given to skills at a global level. In fact, the EU’s ‘Pact for Skills’ training initiative endeavours to see 60 per cent adult participation over the next seven years. Based on obtaining micr-credentials or taking small courses offering specific skills, the initiative formally emphasises skills at a global level.

The focus in the future will probably be on ways to standardise this learning. That is where a skills passport, accepted worldwide, will come into play. Relevant platforms will have to verify the credentials and authenticity of those offering the courses and the learners taking them. For instance, Acclaim, is a digital badging platform employing block-chain technology to externally verify the learners and teachers both. This will ensure that the learners can use the credentials — which will be recognised everywhere— to bag more suitable and better jobs.

If such a standardised skills passport comes to be recognised worldwide, talent pools will witness a higher level of diversity. Imagine workers from all over the world, irrespective of nationality, being able to conveniently get their learning / competencies verified. Not only will there be suitable opportunities for everyone, but employers will have no problems finding the right and competent talent, even from across borders, whenever the need arises. Access to suitable talent, when and wherever required, will become a lot easier.

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The survey that covered 2,100 employees and C-level executives across the US, the UK, Canada, and Australia, shows that almost 70 per cent of the C-suite are contemplating switching to a job where their well-being will be better supported!

While 65 per cent of employees self-reported their physical well-being as good or excellent, C-suite’s assessment is that 89 per cent of their employees are experiencing good or excellent well-being. While only 59 per cent of employees self-reported good or excellent mental well-being, C-suite feels 84 per cent employees are in good or excellent mental health. In terms of social well-being, 51 per cent employees self-reported good well-being, according to C-suite’s assessment, there is 84 per cent social well-being amongst staff. While only 40 per cent employees self-reported financial well-being, C-suite assessment reveals 81 per cent financial well-being.

Clearly, C-suite is underestimating how much their employees are struggling to achieve physical, mental, social and financial well-being.

What is more alarming is that both C-suite and employees seem to be experiencing fatigue and poor mental health. About 43 per cent of the employees and 36 per cent of C-suite admit to feeling exhausted always or often. A significant 42 per cent of the employees and 41 per cent of the C-suite are stressed all the time or quite often. About 35 per cent employees and 40 per cent of C-suite are overwhelmed, while 24 per cent of employees and 30 per cent of C-suite admit to feeling lonely or always or frequently. In fact, 23 per cent of employees and 26 per cent C-suite even admit to feeling depressed often or always.

When both the C-suite and employees are facing well-being issues, it is quite concerning to see that over eight out of 10 global executives are of the belief that their employees are doing well in terms of physical, mental, social and financial well-being.

Quite a significant number of employees feel their executives were hardly supportive during the pandemic, while C-suite has a different take altogether. While only 47 per cent of the employees surveyed thought their executives understood how tough the pandemic period was on them, a whopping 90 per cent of the C-suite claimed to recognise how difficult and challenging the pandemic was for their employees. Only 53 per cent of employees appreciated the decision-making abilities of their organisation’s executives during the pandemic or felt their decisions were in the best interest of the staff. On the other hand, 88 per cent of the C-suite believed their decisions were commendable.

What is worrying is that only 56 per cent of the employees felt that their executives really cared about them or their well-being, but a whopping 91 per cent C-suite were under the impression that their employees believed that they did care about their well-being.

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While job vacancies are rising, there seems to be a hiring slowdown, owing to rising inflation and a weak economic outlook, which is adding to the uncertainty. Also, the reduced number of permanent positions many feel can be attributed to lengthy hiring processes.

There has been a further rise in starting wages in April, as employers are attempting to compensate new hires for the rising cost of living. The survey that covered about 400 recruitment consultancies, reveals that firms are finding it difficult to draw skilled talent, especially for permanent roles.

Maximum permanent jobs are available in the engineering and accounting space, while maximum temporary vacancies are available in the nursing, care giving and hospitality space. In the retail space, however, the demand for both temporary and permanent positions was low.

Labour supply seems to have grown for the second consecutive month after showing a decline over the last two years. That means, more people are joining the pool of job seekers. While most are looking for permanent jobs, many are also considering alternative employment in the hope of better remuneration, which will help them deal with the inflation.

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Contractual staff most vulnerable

If and when layoffs do happen, it is the contract employees who will be most impacted. That is something most of those surveyed are sure of. Fifty per cent admitted that the most vulnerable lot are the contractual staff. About 21 per cent feel the front liners are most vulnerable to be given the pink slip. A small ten per cent of those surveyed also feel that senior management are most likely to be affected in case of a layoff, while 20 per cent feel that the impact will be maximum in the mid-management level.

Axing jobs without any warning unethical

However, a whopping 81 per cent of those surveyed believe that mass layoffs without prior intimation are unethical. There is also a small percentage (12 per cent) that think it is ethical to layoff people in huge numbers without intimating them. About four per cent have a neutral view, while three per cent do not know whether this practice is ethical or unethical.

Overhiring has led to layoffs

Most organisations and employees surveyed (36 per cent) feel that overhiring is the real reason behind layoffs. About 30 per cent believe layoffs are resorted to in order to cut costs. Only 23 per cent feel layoffs result because of economic downfall. About 11 per cent believe layoffs are resorted to because of dependency on advanced technologies.

Market inflation is a concern

A whopping 71 per cent of employees admit that they would be concerned about market inflation and its effect if there is a layoff in their organisation. Only about two per cent of the employees surveyed admit that they have enough financial backup or funds to live off in case of a layoff. About 22 per cent said market inflation would not worry them if a layoff is to take place in their organisation.

Time to switch

A majority of those surveyed are clearly looking out for opportunities. In fact, 83 per cent are planning to switch jobs to avoid uncertainties amidst layoffs. Only a measly eight per cent admit to feeling comfortable and well settled in their organisations and are not considering a switch. About five per cent plan to start their own business, while four per cent are unsure of their next step and would prefer to wait for the market to open up.

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While women were more bogged down by the emotional demands of the pandemic period, causing them to burnout, for men, it was the absence of a support network and perceived unfairness that caused burnout.

According to a report by Mercer, a whopping 89 per cent of Gen Z and 89 per cent of Gen Y is at risk of burnout. Baby Boomers are at least risk of burnout (58 per cent). The figure for Gen X is 78 per cent.

About 41 per cent C-suite executives say the pandemic made them realise that the fundamental shift in their business needed a major rehaul in terms of work, workforce and workplace. Forty per cent believe that their business is capable of overcoming unexpected challenges. A significant 39 per cent realise that they need to be more digital to be able to compete. About 36 per cent feel that their investment in employee health and well-being has resulted in measurable returns. About 36 per cent also believe that knowing what skills they have in their workforce improves agility.

After the pandemic, about 13 per cent employees feel they don’t want to work at all, while 64 per cent think their work is an important part of their life.

While 13 per cent feel their profession is not right for them, 64 per cent are sure they are in the right profession. Another 13 per cent feel they are working in the wrong company, while 62 per cent love their company.

About 15 per cent are unhappy with their work-life balance and find it pathetic, while 59 per cent are extremely happy with their work-life balance. Twenty-three per cent admit they work mainly for the money, but a significant 54 per cent work for more than just money.

While 23 per cent want to put in lesser hours at work, 47 per cent want to put in more.

Interestingly, although 88 per cent of employees surveyed are satisfied in their current role, two in five do plan to move on. A whopping 92 per cent of Gen Z admitted to being the most satisfied with their current job / role, but 55 per cent also admit that they are most likely to leave.

Compared to 2019, when 74 per cent employees felt energised at work, in 2022, only 63 per cent felt so. While 69 per cent of the men feel energised, only 57 per cent of the women did. In terms of generations, Gen Z (55 per cent) is the least energised at work, while Gen Y is the most (65 per cent).

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If companies have managed to save thousands of dollars in costs by implementing ChatGPT, it will not be surprising if human employees are soon replaced by the AI chatbot, globally.

About 11 per cent of the firms using ChatGPT have managed to save a whopping $100,000. So it is little wonder that 30 per cent of the firms surveyed plan to implement it soon.

With ChatGPT being able to achieve a wide range of tasks, about 66 per cent of the companies are using it to write code, about 58 per cent are relying on it to create content and for copywriting, while 57 per cent are using it for customer support. A good 52 per cent are getting meeting summaries done by the AI chatbot.

About 77 per cent admit that ChatGPT helps them write job descriptions, while about 66 per cent employers are able to draft interview requisitions, and 65 per cent use it to respond to applicants.

Most businesses are clearly quite impressed by what ChatGPT is able to achieve. A good 55 per cent admit that the quality of work produced by it is ‘excellent’, whereas about 34 per cent admit that it is ‘very good’.

On being asked whether ChatGPT will cause workers to be laid off by the end of 2023, about 33 per cent of the business leaders interviewed said, “definitely”,’ while 26 per cent said “probably”.

What’s more, companies already expect candidates to have knowledge of ChatGPT. Most business leaders (92 per cent) feel that having AI/chatbot experience is a big advantage, while 90 per cent said that having experience specific to ChatGPT would be beneficial for candidates.

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The report cites some rather disappointing findings of a survey by FSG, wherein 6,600 working-age women were interviewed, from low-income households in 16 cities across 14 states in India.

It is alarming to see that women still have to seek permission from men to go out and take up a job or work. A whopping 84 per cent women identified a male family member without whose permission they cannot decide to go out and work. Only over 30 per cent of women have had some level of vocational training, while a good majority (85 per cent) of the trained women have been trained in gendered areas of work that is, stitching/tailoring (62 per cent), beautician or makeup services (16 per cent), and Mehendi application (7 per cent).

While most women begin working to earn money, they wish to continue working whether they need the money or not. What seems to motivate them, according to a majority (90 per cent) is the fact that they are able to take care of their own and their family’s expenses. For 40 per cent of working women, the ability to pay for their children’s education is the main driving force. Only about 20 per cent of working women admit that they would stop working if they had no financial needs to fulfil. A significant 78 per cent intend to work until their health allows them to or till the age of retirement.

Women have a strong preference for fixed-location jobs, with 72 per cent willing to work from an office and about 52 per cent ready to work from a mall or store. They’d rather avoid jobs that require field work or daily travel. Only about 22 per cent of the women interviewed were keen to take up a job that requires them to go door to door.

While women feel that mothers should take up work outside the house, men do not share the same opinion. About 88 per cent of women feel that women can go out and work even after becoming mothers. About 52 per cent of women believe that mothers of children below six years of age can work outside of their house, about 61 per cent of the key decision-makers, primarily men, believe that women with small kids, below six years of age, should not take up work that requires them to step out.

Interestingly, women are not keen to migrate for a job. A majority (86 per cent) will not migrate even within their own state for a job even if it offers them Rs 12,000 – 15,000 per month.

However, it is heartening to see that one in two women is either working in a job or looking for a job. Only about 15 per cent of women wish to never take up a job. Of these, 29 per cent are above 44 years of age.

An encouraging 64 per cent of women are of the strong belief that work is important to make them self-reliant. About 52 per cent of working women enjoy working, while an overwhelming 90 per cent of working women admit that that working is the right thing to do.

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These are figures revealed by Fiama’s Mental Well-being Survey 2022 in association with NielsenIQ.

Interestingly, one third of women feel their mental health is affected by how others perceive their body!

The survey reveals that 81 per cent millennials find the workplace to be the highest/strongest stressor for them. Stress at the workplace is caused by work pressure, bad bosses and a toxic work environment. One third of GenZ admits that body image issue has a negative impact on their mental health.

A significant 66 per cent people in Bangalore and 68 per cent in Mumbai admit that work-related stress is the major cause of concern. While 60 per cent of people in Bangalore will not seek help from a therapist, 27 per cent will approach a therapist basis a family or friend’s recommendation.

While 43 per cent Bangaloreans listen to music to destress, 36 per cent resort to yoga and 39 per cent to meditation. About 41 per cent people from Mumbai listen to music to destress, 28 per cent rely on yoga and 36 per cent on meditation. Six out of 10 Mumbaikars will avoid seeing a therapist, but one in three will seek help if recommended by a friend or family member.

About 66 per cent of Delhiites say that work causes stress. About 46 per cent of people in Delhi listen to music to reduce stress, while 39 per cent meditate and 36 per cent do yoga. About 71 per cent people in Delhi will not see a therapist, but 35 per cent will go for therapy if recommended by a friend or family.

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The report says that the top five functions that are transitioning to the hybrid or virtual models are: technology, HR, strategy planning, finance, business management/executive leadership.

And how do organisations decide which functions or jobs to move to the virtual environment? Well, 61 per cent decide on the basis of how low the complexity of job is, 53 per cent decide basis how little team collaboration is required, 65 per cent shift those jobs to virtual mode where the persons involved take end-to-end ownership and 60 per cent consider those jobs that require ad-hoc interactions.

Sector-wise, it is clear that most of the jobs that have moved to the virtual environment are those where requirement of client interaction is less or where customers do not have to be faced much. Almost 90 per cent of the employees in such jobs or sectors are still working from home.

In India, 67.9 per cent of employees are working from home, while 19.7 per cent are following a hybrid model and about 35.4 per cent are working from office.

In the manufacturing space, 51.5 per cent are working from home, 22.7 per cent are following a hybrid model and about 47.9 per cent are working from office.

In the services sector, 7.2 per cent have adopted work-from-home, 17.9 per cent hybrid and 34.9 per cent have chosen in-person working.

In the IT space, a whopping 92.8 per cent people are working from home, 13.4 per cent are following the hybrid model and 10.4 per cent are working from office.

In the retail space, only 37.9 per cent employees are working from home, which is understandable. About 12.6 per cent follow the hybrid model and the majority (65 per cent) work from office.

In the automotive sector too, majority (58 per cent) work in person and 41.5 per cent work from home. Only 3.3 per cent follow the hybrid model.

The survey saw participation from over 1350 organisations representing 39 industries across sectors — Hi-tech/information technology, e-commerce, professional services, financial institutions, FMCG/FMCD, hospitality, energy and so on.

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This insight into employee behaviour comes from PwC’s Global Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey 2022, which aims to help employers expect, plan and prepare for specific scenarios at the workplace.

The report goes on to reveal that about 93 per cent employees in India wish to be able to choose when to work, compared to the global 88 per cent. In fact, 34 per cent Indian employees think it is extremely important for them to be able to choose their work timing, while for 36 per cent it is very important. For 15 per cent, it is moderately important to be able to decide when they can work, while considering a change in work environment, and for eight per cent it is only slightly important.

Thirty-nine per cent of employees think it is extremely important for them to have a clear plan to advance their career with their employer, while thinking of changing their work environment, and 39 per cent feel it is very important, while 12 per cent think it is moderately important. Only about four per cent feel it is not important to have a clear plan for career advancement with the employer at the time of considering a change of workplace.

Another factor employees want to consider while making a change in the work environment is whether they can truly be themselves at work. A good 43 per cent Indians think this is extremely important for them, compared to the global 29 per cent! While 38 per cent Indians think it is very important, 10 per cent think it is moderately important. Only three per cent think this is not important.

About 95 per cent Indians think it is important for the job to be fulfilling. Of these, 42 per cent think it is extremely important, while 37 per cent think it is very important, 12 per cent think it is moderately important and four per cent think it is just slightly important. Globally, 91 per cent consider it important for the job to be fulfilling.

Of course 42 per cent Indians also consider fair financial reward as an extremely important factor. Of these, about 37 per cent think it is very important to be fairly rewarded financially for their work.

What the report makes clear is that it is not just compensation that employees take into consideration while accepting a job. Employers need to understand that today’s talent wants to be able to know that their work will have a significant impact on the team. About 41 per cent employees in India consider this an extremely important factor, while thinking of taking up a new job.

Indian employees also want their managers to consider their viewpoint. About 39 per cent think this an extremely important deciding factor while taking up a job.

A whopping 97 per cent want to be able to innovate and be creative in their job. While 43 per cent of them think this is extremely important, 37 per cent think it is very important, 12 per cent think it is moderately important and five per cent think it is slightly important.

That is not all. The talent of today have minds of their own for sure, because 37 per cent feel it is extremely important to be able to choose how they do their work in a way that suits them. About 38 per cent think this is very important, and 14 per cent think it is moderately important.

While considering a work environment, employees in India today prefer to work in teams that care about their wellbeing too, with 41 per cent considering this an extremely important factor.

Clearly, employers need to accept that, going forward, it is the organisational purpose that will drive the employee value proposition.

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Clearly, the pandemic made the maximum impact on management capabilities, and KPMG’s Management Capability Development Index India (MCDI) reports are used to measure and evaluate management capability across industries and sectors every year.

In this year’s survey, the maximum participants were from the manufacturing sector (21 per ent), followed by professional services (15 per cent), then IT (14 per cent), education (14 per cent), financial services (10 per cent) and finally, healthcare (2 per cent).

Given the challenges that organisations have had to face, due the pandemic-imposed restrictions and changes, the managerial capabilities that have really stood out recently are resilience, the urge to innovate, the passion to outperform, and also the ability to leverage digital technology to ensure efficiency in terms of operations and cost optimisation.

Building the right management capabilities can go a long way in ensure sustainable business performance.

As per the Management Capability Development Index India 2022, the following are few dimensions that participants of the survey rated their organisations’ management (and their capabilities) on:

Visionary leadership: This critical dimension received a moderate overall MCDI rating of 73.3.

Organisations with revenue between Rs 30 to 60 crore rated their managements higher in terms of this dimension (3.93), than their counterparts from companies with revenue between Rs 120 to 300 crore, who scored their managements lowest (3.06).

Performance leadership: In terms of performance leadership, the overall MCDI score was 74.4. Here, organisations with headcount between 101 to 200 rated their management highest, while those with headcount between 1 to 5 rated them lowest.

People leadership & self-development: Overall MCDI score for this dimension was 73.2. Participants from organisations with revenue between 30 to 60 crore rated their management highest (3.95), while those from organisations with revenue between Rs 120 to 300 crore rated the lowest (3.36). It appears that participants from IT and mining sectors are most confident of their management’s ability in this area, while participants from healthcare are least confident.

Financial leadership: Without good financial leadership, it becomes difficult for organisations to make important and timely business decisions and shape business goals. In this dimension, participants from organisations with revenue between Rs 60 to 120 crore rated their management highest (4.18), while the management of organisations with a revenue of 1-6 crore received the lowest rating (2.91). Organisations with workforce strength of 101-200 rated their management highest (4.45), while those with headcount between 1 and 5 rated them the lowest (2.4).

Organisational capability: Organisations gain competitive advantage because of the organisational capability of their management. The overall MCDI score for this dimension was a moderate 71.5

Companies with 101 -200 employees rated their management highest in terms of organisational capability, while those with 1 to 5 employees rated their management lowest.

The general opinion of participants was that not many organisations are as strongly committed to continuous learning at the individual or organisational level.

As per the MCDI scores, organisational capability was above average in the mining sector and below average in the healthcare space.

Application of tech & knowledge: Overall, the MCDI score was higher for this dimension this year, than in previous surveys, thanks to the pandemic accelerating digitisation.

Application of technology and knowledge ensures better interactive experience for employees. Participants from organisations with headcount between 101 to 200 rated their organisations highest in this area, while smaller organisations with one to five employees scored the lowest.

While most participants feel that their organsiations do understand the importance of applying tech knowledge, organisations still have a long way to go when it comes to effective application of knowledge and information management systems.

External relations: This ensures better fit of organisations with the market via beter products and understanding of customer needs. The overall MCDI score was high for this dimension (75.3) as participants believe their organisation’s capability to establish and build external relationships has gone up.

Organisations with 21 to 50 participants rate their management highest in this area, while those with 6 to 20 employees are rated lowest.

Integrity and corporate governance: It would be impossible for organsiations to nurture an environment of positivity and put in place effective internal control without focus on this dimension. The overall MCDI score for this dimension was 80.4, which is much higher than all other dimensions.

Participants from the utilities and professional services space are most confident that their organisations practise honesty, integrity and ethical behaviour, which are essential for sustained success. Participants from the IT space were least confident of their organisations in this dimension.

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The four labour codes — Code on Wages, Industrial Relations Code, Social Security Code and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code — are set to replace the 29 labour laws that exist in India.

The survey titled ‘How Indian Industry Perceives Implementation of the Proposed Labour Codes’ was conducted in the last quarter of 2021, to assess India Inc.’s readiness for the implementation of these four codes, which were initially proposed in 2019.

The survey sampled 700+ companies who have a presence in India. About 67 percent of the companies sample said that they would prefer a phased roll out of the codes, rather than all at once, for better preparation and ease of implementation.

About 83 per cent of the industry clearly understands that the Codes have an all-encompassing implication on the entire employee lifecycle, as opposed to the general perception that the Codes only entail changes to wages.

The report was released virtually by Pratik Kumar, CEO, Wipro Infrastructure Engineering and executive director – Wipro Enterprises.

Delivering the keynote address, Kumar said, “The changes that the four codes are expected to bring about have been long overdue and it has been an industry ‘ask’. The codes aim to enhance the social security of the workforce and guide implementation of labour law compliance. They will cut down on significant systemic complexities and help accelerate economic growth. On their part, organisations need to revisit their HR policies and relook at their employee compensation structure. They have to conduct their own impact analysis and critically look at their own compliance practices.”

He adds that the new labour codes would have to strike a balance between enhancing social security and simplifying things in a manner that compliance becomes easy. One of the salient points of the codes is that they cut down on compliances, so that employers could focus on other aspects to a greater extent.

Although the preference would be of a deferred roll-out of the labour code, it’s implementation in that way will not be possible. Opining on the viability of this, Dr Manjunath Gangadhara, additional labour commissioner (Industrial Relations & Child Labour), Government of Karnataka, said that the ministry plans to repeal the 29 labor laws in a single go, and bring in the new laws in place of them together at a pan-India level.

“Panel provisions do not necessarily need to be deferred. The penal codes also have provision of exemption under them. New enterprises can be exempted from their implementation for up to three years. Seeking exemption, companies can work on their preparedness for the same,” Gangadhara said.

Madhu Damodaran, group legal head, Quess Corp, commented on the fact that the survey results showed that 700-odd employers are interested in the implementation. He was “Pleased that more than 57 per cent of the participants are ready,” and concerned that “43 per cent are not prepared”. He felt it was “high time stakeholders ready themselves for the impending change quickly”.

When it comes to measures taken towards implementation of the Codes, the Labour Code Survey Report reveals that 34.9 per cent of companies are in a high state of proactiveness while 18.6 per cent have not initiated any action till now.

The report highlights some common sentiments from the industry bodies that took part in the survey. One of the key demands of the employers from the Government is to provide an adequate time frame to the industry to understand and implement the three codes without issues. Further, they expect to be provided with a financial incentive for a year or two to meet the increased cost of consulting, which companies may incur during the implementation.

The codes are expected to have a huge financial impact on the employers. With so many changes, it will take time for respective stakeholders to understand and abide by the new codes, says the report.

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The members of the LGBTQ+ community feel that their identity tends to get lost under the guise of neutrality at the workplace. The environment becomes less attractive when intrusiveness is often interpreted as curiosity. Even in workplaces where discrimination is not externally evident or visible, there exists a somewhat underlying toxic culture which makes members of the community feel less than comfortable.

There is also lack of clarity when it comes to whom to approach or seek help from in case there is discrimination or bias. While formal policies are in place, they have not been advocated aggressively. Matters become worse when no penalties are imposed on employees who fail to comply with the organisational policies. There is lack of sensitisation, and therefore, unless adequate internalisation happens, homophobia will not vanish, but will merely remain just below the surface.

True inclusiveness, members of the community feel, will come only if the members are considered for leadership roles and core roles, and not expected to only lead LGBTQ initiatives. They wish to be appreciated for their willingness to learn. The community suggests that instead of focussing on fancy diversity and inclusion (D&I) content and forums, D&I should be made part of the organisational DNA. The best way to do this is by having more members from LGBTQ+ community in then leadership rank.

Other facilities and benefits that would make workplaces more inclusive are gender-neutral washrooms, insurance/health cover for same sex partners, competitive salaries, and so on.

Another common observation is that the vision/policies pertaining to inclusion are limited to human resources alone. Also, while there are many opportunities offered for women to discuss and talk about their rights and safety, the LGBTQ+ community remains relatively ignored.

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For this survey, CMIE analysed samples from over 1.79 lakh households and over 5.22 lakh members over 15 years old.

The trends reveal that the unemployment rate also dropped to 6.86 per cent in September from 8.3 per cent in August.

The labour force participation rate also increased marginally from August to September, from 40.5 per cent to 40.7 per cent. The employment rate grew from 37.2 per cent to 37.9 per cent. Salaried jobs take the lead of all the major occupation groups in the job increase. Employment among daily wage workers also increased by 5.5 million this quarter, from 128.4 million in August to 134 million in September.

There were some not so positive developments discovered as well. The estimated count of entrepreneurs was discovered to have fallen from 76 million in August to 74.4 million in September.

Sector-wise employment from August till September is not similar for all the sectors. In construction, employment increased by 5.5 million between August and September. In manufacturing, it increased by 2.9 million, while it increased by 2.5 million in the food industries. Retail witnessed a decrease in employment by 4.3 million between August and September, while in the IT industry, employment decreased from two million in May-June 2021 to 1.8 million by September.

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The survey also reveals that the corporate workforce of India were given an average increment of 8 per cent in 2021.

In fact, about 92 per cent of companies gave an average increment of eight per cent to their employees in 2021— almost double the average hike given in 2020, which stood at 4.4 per cent, when only 60 per cent companies had given a pay hike.

The 2022 projections show results similar to the findings of 2019. It shows that about one-fourth of the companies surveyed were planning to offer a double-digit hike in 2022.

Organisations would be rewarding their top performers to a greater extent than the average performers, differentiating on the basis of skills and performance. Increments of top performers could be 1.8 times than the average performers.

In line with the boom in IT hiring, the survey reveals that the sector would be likely to award the highest increments to professionals in 2022. The life sciences sector is expected to give out the second highest increments.

Retail, hospitality, infrastructure and real estate are projected to provide the lowest increments, which is in line with their business dynamics.

Deloitte’s 2021 Workforce and Increment Trends survey was launched in July and more than 450 organisations were covered in the study, with the primary audience comprising seasoned HR professionals.

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The study, undertaken by sRide, a social platform that helps millions of people to commute via carpooling, covered 10,000 users of the sRide app across the metros.

The survey found that amidst efforts by employers to get their employees back to working from office safely, about 95 per cent respondents in the metros admitted they were willing to carpool to work. Of course, the majority preferred to commute in ‘car bubbles’ with a fixed set of people they were comfortable travelling and socialising with. About 53 per cent of the respondents from Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Pune, Hyderabad and Kolkata expect to return to working from their offices with effect from September 2021.

Some of the top IT companies in India are considering reopening their office spaces by October 2021, provided employees are completely vaccinated and the Government permits.

Lakshna Jha, founder & CEO, sRide, reveals that regular carpoolers have become friends and acquaintances. Since there is “a greater sense of familiarity”, because of having traveled together in the past. These riders are “creating their own social bubbles with people they travel with on the same route.” Such social bubbles give rise to small communities of people who travel together and establish long-term relationships. With hikes in the fuel prices, many find it economical to carpool than use their own personal vehicles. It has been observed that commuters tend to repeatedly choose the same set of co-riders for their commute to work or for shopping, and even vaccination drives.

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KPMG has announced that it will follow a strategy of ‘four-day fortnight’ and will also invest in introducing collaborative spaces and remote-working technology. The Company had consulted its employees in March 2021, before introducing such changes, and many of them expressed the desire to work from home.

After doing an in house survey, KPMG found out that 87 per cent of employees enjoyed working from home as they did not have to spend time on commuting, while 76 per cent enjoyed the flexibility that work- from-home offered them and 65 per cent admitted to a better work-life balance.

The Company has full faith that the employees will be able to design their work days as per their needs and will serve the clients of the Company with full enthusiasm and sincerity.

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However, that was a year gone by, and the new year brings in lot of positivity. According to a survey by Michael Page, around 53 per cent of companies in India are looking to increase their headcounts in 2021. The sentiment is similar among employees as well. Among the respondents, 75 per cent of those employed anticipate looking for new job opportunities in 2021.

This is not all. About 60 per cent of employers intend to increase salaries in 2021, and 55 per cent of companies intend to give out bonus payments. Out of these 43 per cent of companies were willing or planning to give out more than one month’s pay as bonus.

The increased positivity in hiring will also fuel the talent war and companies will have to regear their talent attraction strategies. Around 56 per cent of companies are optimistic that things would change for the better from Q2 2021 onwards.

Here is what companies across India and Asia Pacific are planning to do:

FLEXIBILITY:

Most businesses are desirous of focussing on staffing flexibility to optimise and allocate resources. More businesses will want flexible staff, in the form of temporary or contract employees, as they allow the freedom to increase or decrease headcount as per short-term business needs.

While businesses are assessing the resources presently available, they are also looking at ways for maximum optimisation. About 20 per cent of companies wish to prioritise hiring short-term contractors/temp workers to bridge skill gaps that emerge from investing in digital tools and organisation redesign. No wonder there was a 58 per cent rise in the number of contract/temporary job listings on LinkedIn globally last year.

In India, however, in the technology sector, 47 per cent tech companies are ready to offer remote/flexible work arrangements to attract quality talent. About 23 per cent of Indian healthcare and life sciences companies are willing to allow remote/flexible arrangements to lure good talent.

In the BFSI space, 37 per cent companies are ready to offer remote working options to draw quality talent. A significant 46 per cent Indian e-commerce companies and 24 per cent property and construction firms are ready to offer flexibility to suitable talent.

NO ‘ONE SIZE FITS ALL’ WORK MODEL:

Although four in five employees in APAC feel equally or more productive working from home, only five per cent prefer a full-fledged (100 per cent) remote working model. Most prefer a combination of remote work and work from office, as they crave social interaction.

The findings also show that employees prefer to have flexible work timings across the same workdays and total working hours. There is no “one-size-fits-all” workplace or work model.

A good 87 per cent favour blended flexibility, and would appreciate a choice. About 52 per cent are willing to work for the same number of hours across the same workdays but with flexible timing. About 27 per cent would be fine with a completely flexible schedule at their discretion. Thirteen per cent would prefer fixed timings to begin and end work and eight per cent would prefer a compressed work week, with four work days and extended hours.

TECHNOLOGY:

A good 68 per cent of the companies in APAC plan to increase investment in technology and digital tools in 2021.

The three areas that will receive maximum investment are: communication tools (video and web conferencing, enterprise social networking services), collaborative suites (calendar sharing, file sharing, document synchronisation, cloud storage, whiteboards), customer-relationship management (CRM) tools (operational, analytical, collaborative, campaign management and strategic CRM).

Naturally then, professionals who can help facilitate this transition to digital are much sought after. In India too, the demand for tech professionals has gone up. In fact, in the technology sector, 74 per cent companies expect a 14 per cent increase in headcount in 2021.

There is increasing demand for experts in SaaS, health-tech, ed-tech and gaming industries. Many organisations have taken advantage of the availability of Indian techies who are happy to return to India due to the pandemic. To rope in quality talent, startups are also allowing them to work remotely or opt for a hybrid model.

While artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are amongst the key skills, the roles in demand are that of architect (cloud / enterprise /solution / software), engineers (backend / full stack / mobile), and CTO / head of engineering.

Maximum job seekers apply for the roles of CIO or head of technology, chief technological officer, director –engineering, digital transformation, enterprise architect.

ORGANISATION DESIGN:

Many respondents felt that it is essential to review focus on organisation design for future business recovery and growth. This will affect existing employees, demand the drawing of new talent and will also require a mix of staffing strategies that involve solutions that are permanent, temporary and outsourced.

Only 26 per cent of companies in the APAC say that they will not go for restructuring in 2021. With the desire to make the environment agile and progressive, 53 per cent of the companies surveyed expect to restructure in 2021. While 38 per cent admitted to planning minor restructuring, 21 per cent are not sure whether they would go for restructuring.

Clearly, 2021 will be about embracing technology more strongly and hiring suitable talent to help in this process. It will also be a year of hybrid work arrangements, with more companies offering remote working options to lure and woo quality talent.

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Not surprisingly, more than 70 per cent workers across the globe are desirous of flexible remote working options continuing. That means, flexible work is not going away anytime soon. But the fact that people are missing meeting their colleagues is also clear because a good 67 per cent are yearning for more in-person interaction with their teams. These insights come from Microsoft’s annual Work Trend Index report. Given the way the manner of working changed in 2020, the report is aptly titled ‘The Next Great Disruption is Hybrid Work – Are We Ready?’

Here are some insights:

Leaders are thriving, subordinates struggling

The study reveals that the majority( 61 per cent) of business leaders are thriving, and only 39 per cent are struggling. On the other hand, 41 per cent of the married professionals are thriving, while 54 per cent are struggling. Fifty-six per cent working mothers are struggling, whereas 44 per cent are thriving. Surprisingly, a significant 61 per cent of GenZ are struggling, and only 40 per cent are thriving. Unfortunately, 61 per cent of frontline workers, who were the heroes of the pandemic are struggling, and only 39 per cent are thriving. In terms of new employees, 64 per cent are struggling, while 36 per cent are thriving. Amongst the single workers, a majority (67 per cent) is struggling, while only 33 per cent are thriving.

Clearly, business leaders or those in decision-making roles are doing far better than their subordinates, with 17 percentage points more being able to earn more and 12 percentage points more being able to go on vacations. About 37 per cent of the global workforce feels their companies are demanding too much of them during such a crisis period.

Overall, people are definitely struggling and new ways will have to be thought of to help them

According to Satya Nadella, CEO at Microsoft, employee expectations are changing, and we will need to define productivity much more broadly — inclusive of collaboration, learning, and wellbeing to drive career advancement for every worker, including frontline and knowledge workers, as well as for new graduates and those who are in the workforce today. All this needs to be done with flexibility in when, where, and how people work.”

Remote working

Of the 31,092 full-time employed or self-employed workers surveyed, across 31 markets, between January 12, 2021 and January 25, 2021, 42 per cent employees feel that they lack the required office supplies at home. One in 10 lack proper internet connection to perform their work. Surprisingly, even after a year of the pandemic-induced remote working approach, 46 per cent employees say their employers do not support them in terms of internet expenses. The good news is that 66 per cent leaders are planning to redesign the physical offices for hybrid working. So, despite the challenges, post-pandemic workplaces will witness extreme flexibility and follow the hybrid route.

Work-life balance and digital exhaustion

One in five respondents feel their employer doesn’t care about their work-life balance. A singificnat 54 percent admit to feeling overworked, while 39 per cent feel exhausted. There are clear indications of digital exhaustion among workers, thanks to the increased number of meetings and chats over the past year. With each passing year, meetings and chats per person are increasing per week.

Gen Z badly impacted, demotivated

Gen Z seems to have suffered the most during the pandemic. Belonging to the 18 to 25 age bracket, they are mostly single and are in the initial stages of their career. Therefore, naturally, they have felt the after-effects of isolation the most. With hardly any motivation at work, and inadequate finances to set up a comfortable home office for remote working, they seem to have felt the maximum impact. No wonder, 60 per cent admit to struggling. Compared to older generations, they are more exhausted at the end of the day and find it challenging to balance work and home. This has affected their ability to participate actively in meetings or think of new ideas.

Work is more ‘human’

While broader networks seemed to have been ignored, people interacted closely with their immediate networks during the pandemic. But then, something positive also came out of it all. With people across ranks working from home and trying to balance domestic life and professional work, the human side of work was highlighted. One in five employees got to meet their families and pets online. About 17 per cent have actually cried with a colleague, and a higher number shared sorrows in the industries that bore the maximum brunt — 20 per cent in the education sector, 21 per cent in the travel and tourism space and 23 per cent in the healthcare space.

These virtual interactions with coworkers have encouraged people to be themselves and also bond better. In comparison to a year ago, 39 per cent people feel they will be more likely to be their original selves at work, while 31 per cent admit they will not feel as embarrassed or ashamed when their homes or domestic lives are exposed. Stronger work relationships have been created and higher productivity has been reported.

Wider talent pool

Remote working or the hybrid work model has led to a wider talent pool. There were five times more remote job postings during the pandemic than ever before. A significant 46 per cent of remote workers plan to shift to a new location as they can now work from anywhere. Career expansion or growth no longer demands relocation or leaving the community or home.

Career transition

The pandemic forced professionals to consider switching jobs. About 41 per cent workers, globally, are considering leaving their current employer within a year, and 46 per cent plan to make a major transition in terms of their career.

Challenges for leaders

Clearly, decision-makers have a challenge at hand. They cannot follow the old models or rely on past experiences and decide on the basis of assumptions. Like Jared Spataro, corporate VP, Microsoft 365 puts it, “The choices you make today will impact organisations for years to come. It’s a moment that requires clear vision and a growth mindset.” He could not have been closer to the truth as he explains, “These decisions will impact everything from how you shape culture, to how you attract and retain talent, to how you can better foster collaboration and innovation.”

The workforce will have to be empowered for flexibility. Work spaces will have to be redesigned to balance the physical and digital worlds. Employee experience will require rethinking.

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Job security: About 60 per cent people fear that automation will take away their jobs. About 48 per cent feel that traditional jobs will no longer be available in the future; and that there will only be demand for skills as per need or requirement in the short term or for project-based work. While globally, a significant 56 per cent feel that few people will have stable, long-term employment in the future, in India, this figure is an alarming 81 per cent. Sixty-one per cent of those surveyed feel their respective governments should work to protect jobs. Of these, 66 per cent are youngsters in the 18 to 34 age range, while 51 per cent belong to the above 55 age group. About 39 per cent believe that jobs will be rendered obsolete in five years’ time.

Reskilling: The pandemic led to 40 per cent workers around the world successfully improving their digital skills. The good news is that 77 per cent are willing to learn new skills or retrain themselves totally. A good 74 per cent feel it is their own responsibility to train themselves. A significant majority of 80 per cent feel confident of being able to adapt to new technologies entering their workplace. A good majority of people in India, 69 per cent share this confidence, followed by 66 per cent in South Africa. In Japan, however, only five per cent of those surveyed feel confident of adapting to new technologies at the workplace.

One positive point is that 46 per cent of postgraduates admitted their employers give them opportunities to improve their digital skills, but only 28 per cent of people with school-leaver qualifications agree. The figure for the same in the banking sector is 42 per cent, in the retail or transport, its 25 per cent and 20 per cent respectively.

Youngsters are twice as likely to get opportunities to improve skills,as older people, and people in cities are 1.5 times as likely as people in the towns.

A good 49 per cent of those surveyed are focused on building entrepreneurial skills and wish to set up their own business. A majority (82 per cent) in Saudi Arabia show this trend, 82 per cent in South Africa, followed by 79 per cent in India and 79 per cent in Qatar (79%).

Wokrplace discrimination: Fifty per cent of the workers admitted to having faced discrimination at work, which prevented career development or training. About 22 per cent were passed over due to their age, that is, for being too young or too old. Ethnicity prevented 13 per cent from missing out on opportunities, while gender discrimination prevented 14 per cent from taking advantage of opportunities. Women were twice as likely to be discriminated against than men. Discrimination on the basis of social class or background was reported by 13 per cent.

Contribution to society: Clearly, workers across the globe wish to contribute to society, and hence, prefer working for purpose-driven companies, but not at any cost. A significant 75 per cent of respondents wish to work for an organisation that makes a positive contribution to society. Maximum workers in China shared this feeling (87 per cent), followed by 90 per cent in India and 90 per cent in South Africa.

If forced to choose, 54% say they’d choose to maximise income while 46% say they’d choose a job that makes a difference over more money. About 57 per cent of those between the ages of 18 and 34 would choose to maximise their income.

Remote work: Of those who worked remotely during the pandemic, only nine per cent want to revert to the traditional work-from-office routine. A good 72 per cent prefer a hybrid model of work, while 19 per cent have no desire to return to office and are willing to work from home permanently. In the metros, 66 per cent workers are more likely to accept jobs that allow remote working than 44 per cent of those living in rural areas. About 51 per cent feel technological breakthroughs will transform the way people work in the next three to five years. About 44 per cent of workers will agree to allow their employer use technology to track their performance at work, including sensors and wearable devices, while 31 per cent oppose this.

Forty-one per cent of the 32,517 people surveyed admit to being unwilling to allow their employers to access their personal data, including social media profiles. In fact, 35 per cent will allow their employers access to their social media accounts.

The survey covered workers, business owners, contract workers, students, job seekers, workers on furlough and those who were temporarily laid off, across 19 countries.

India, Germany, Australia, Canada, Kuwait, China, France, Japan, Malaysia, Netherlands, Poland, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Singapore, South Africa, the UAE, the UK and the US were covered.

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While many CFOs had to make tough decisions in 2020 in the short term, which included downsizing too, they faced the risk of losing key people who could actually lead the recovery plans for organisations this year. Now, CFOs see the next several years as very crucial for rebalancing and reconfiguring the business. They are also very positive and hopeful about economic activity and revenues returning to pre-COVID levels.

Priorities for next five years

Till 2025, the top three important priorities for CFOs will be the business model, technology and talent management. A whopping 86 per cent of the CFOs felt the need to adapt their existing business model to thrive within the future economy. About 58 per cent said investment in emerging technologies and systems will be one of the main focus areas. About 54 per cent said they would concentrate on talent management strategies and practices, that is, recruitment, retention, and succession planning.

What is surprising is, only 17 per cent of the CFOs are prioritising a shift to the remote-working environment in the near future, even though most leaders may have already managed to facilitate and encourage remote work. Maximum attention will, it seems, be paid to new business models, technology, and people. Many CFOs do realise the significance of frequent and regular communication with their remote teams to ensure continued engagement “through a period of extended uncertainty”.

Environmental sustainability, social responsibility

With 2020 being all about conserving cash and preserving shareholder value, little or no attention was paid to environmental sustainability and social responsibility. In the year ahead, these will continue to remain low on the list of priorities for CFOs. Less than 30 per cent CFOS ranked environmental, social, and governance (ESG) as a priority. Only 13 per cent of CFOs from private equity and venture-backed firms saw environmental sustainability and social responsibility as a priority, compared to just over one-third of public company CFOs.

With increased attention from shareholders and activist investors in ESG issues, the focus may return.

Creating value internally

The focus of CFOs will remain on developing and executing strategies to create value within their organisations. While technology and digital transformation will continue to be important, they have declined in ranking. Over 68 per cent of CFOs are of the opinion that they created value through financial stewardship and risk management while 59 per cent felt they did so via business and operational leadership. Surprisingly, 20 per cent less CFOs said they have taken a leadership role in driving and executing corporate strategy since 2017.

Additional responsibilities of CFOs

The role of the CFOs has expanded over the last one year. In addition to their traditional responsibilities, CFOs had to focus on managing costs and liquidity, supporting strategic changes, leadership, and management, even while keeping an eye on communication with key stakeholders and providing a sense of stability.

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The CXOs and HR leaders of India’s top 200 companies were part of the survey. Sanjay Goyal, business head, TimesJobs and TechGig, points out that candidates need to update their skills to remain relevant, because “about 55 per cent of HR leaders stated that they are looking for relevant skills rather than reams of data that is cited as ‘experience’.” This is an important lesson driven home by the pandemic. “Only cutting edge and savvy skills help survive the toughest business scenarios,” he explained.

The Survey revealed that about 39 per cent HR leaders plan to hire fresh talent in 2021. Very few leaders were keen to promote candidates internally or rehire those who were laid off during the pandemic.

It was also learnt that most companies were planning to give 5-25 per cent increments to employees. About 74 per cent HR leaders said they would roll out the annual increments this year. Out of these, while about 63 per cent said that they would offer increments between 5-25 per cent. About 22 per cent HR leaders said that they expect the salary increments to be less than five per cent. Hardly 10 per cent of those surveyed believe that the increment will be around 25-75 per cent.

The Automobiles sector is a being a little cautious, with only 37 per cent HR leaders there planning to hire this year. On the other hand, a significant 54 per cent of the HR leaders in the IT sector, 42 per cent in the retail space, and 45 per cent in the BFSI space were keen to hire.

The top profiles companies will be hiring for, include operations (35 per cent), sales/business development (30 per cent), marketing (22 per cent), production & manufacturing (16 per cent), supply chain & logistics (14 per cent), technology / IT (11 per cent) and quality control (four per cent).

The main focus for HR in 2021 will be the physical and mental wellbeing of employees. A good 39 per cent of the HR leaders said that the mental and physical wellbeing of their employees will be their priority. Twenty-nine per cent said they would encourage employees to upskilling, while 22 per cent said they would introduce new employee benefits.

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The study was commissioned by global HR and payroll company, ADP and surveyed more than 26,000 workers in 25 countries, including China, to examine the impact of COVID-19 on employee engagement and workplace resilience.

While there seemed to be no noticeable correlation between the extent to which a country was significantly impacted by the pandemic and the average workplace resilience of employees, it was established that people who had a close personal experience with the virus — by falling ill themselves or witnessed a near and dear contracting the virus — were 3.8 times likely to be “highly resilient”. As Rahul Goyal, MD, ADP India, rightly points out, the data from the study, “reinforces the well-known notion that people can often emerge stronger after a setback or crisis.”

While it is true that 20 per cent of Indian workers admitted to being fully engaged at work last year, the vast majority reported wide levels of disengagement. This appears to be worldwide trend. Globally, only 14 per cent of those surveyed admitted to being fully engaged at work in 2020.

Designing better ways to work with the use of better technology, cutting-edge products, premium services and exceptional experiences will help employees attain their full potential.

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The Salary Budget Planning Survey report by Willis Towers Watson reveals that projected increments in 2021 will be marginally higher than the average actual increase last year, when it was 5.9 per cent.

Of the companies surveyed across India, 37per cent project a positive business revenue outlook for the next year, which is higher than the 18 per cent in Q3 2020. But hiring does not seem to be keeping up. Only about 10 per cent of the companies intend to hire, whereas 14 per cent planned to hire in the last quarter.

About 20.6 per cent of increments budgeted for are being given to top performers, who make up 10.3 per cent of the employees in the country. In other words, for every rupee set aside of an average performer, Rs 2.35 is allocated to a top performer and Rs 1.25 to an above average performer.

Rajul Mathur, consulting head – talent & rewards, Willis Towers Watson India, points out that there is definitely “an increased optimism on business recovery, but it is yet to translate into the salary increment budget.” Companies will tend to prioritise allocation towards protecting critical and high-skilled talent. In 2021, we there will continue to be more emphasis on “pay for performance and pay linked to business output.”

In high tech, pharmaceuticals and consumer products & retail sectors, the media salary is projected to increase by 8 per cent, which is higher than what is generally projected for the industry.

A seven per cent increment is projected for the financial services and manufacturing sector, whereas a six per cent increment is projected for the BPO sector. In the energy space, the increment is the lowest – 4.6 per cent.

As Arvind Usretay, director, rewards, Willis Towers Watson India, explains, the impact on different sectors was different. “Some sectors such as hospitality, aviation, travel and tourism were hit harder than the others. Sectors, such as pharma, FMCG, e-commerce and high-tech have experienced growth”, which is why their hiring plans and salary budgets for 2021 seem positive.

At the executive level, the median salary increase for 2021 is projected at seven per cent, lower than the 7.1 per cent in 2020. For middle management, professional and support staff, a reduction from 7.5 per cent (last year), to 7.3 per cent this year is projected. The workers belonging to the Production Manual Labour category are likely to receive lower increments of 7.2 per cent as compared to 7.7 per cent in 2020.

With work moving online, the virtual work environment “has brought to the fore the role of distributed leadership.” Organisations will have to come up with new structures to “identify, recognise and reward leaders for their ability to lead change” and have a positive impact on engagement and productivity.

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The report titled ‘IT Skills Training Trends: 2020 and 2021’ published by Simplilearn — Online Bootcamp for digital economy skills training — the also reveals that 14 per cent of those surveyed had lost their jobs (mostly in the manufacturing and finance sector), while 41 per cent were mid-career professionals who felt they had stagnated in their careers. About 25 per cent of the employees in large organisations — mostly consulting, finance, healthcare and pharma firms — felt they were stuck in their jobs,

About see learning as the key to landing better opportunities and plan to start learning programs in 2021

Simplilearn, the world’s number one Online Bootcamp for digital economy skills training, published the findings of its annual survey report titled ‘IT Skills Training Trends: 2020 and 2021’. The survey was conducted to understand how 2020 has affected work environments and what are aspirants doing to prepare for the various eventualities that they foresee in 2021. More than 5,000 Simplilearn learners, comprising both individual and corporate learners, participated in the survey.. A majority of the respondents were from the IT sector, followed by manufacturing, consulting and finance.

However, due to the pandemic, one positive effect has been that professionals are open to upskilling. With the work landscape undergoing changes, more professionals plan to go for upskilling in 2021. About 35 per cent of the respondents saw the pandemic as an opportunity to learn new skills. About 49.5 per cent of employees in small and medium enterprises did the same. Realisation has also dawned that only by learning new skills can professionals hope to stay relevant and hold on to their jobs. About 4 per cent of those surveyed feel that keeping their jobs depends on learning new skills, while 66 per cent are already either taking a course or plan to do so in 2021.

The year 2021 will see a rise in demand for technology professionals. About 54.3 per cent professionals expect upskilling to provide better job opportunities or better pay hikes and promotions. About 20 per cent feel that upskilling can help secure their jobs and careers, while 28.5 per cent believe that upskilling will open up new careers and allow them to follow their passion.

About 71 per cent of the respondents believe that the best way to start learning a skill today is to either join paid online course or take the free self-learning online courses. Interestingly, about 72.8 per cent of professionals are either exploring what they want to study in 2021 or have a definite plan to enroll in an online certification programme. Programmes in digital operations were the most in demand and popular, followed by technology, and data and AI. While data science and AI/ML programmes were popular with mid-career (31-40 year old) learners, digital business was popular with both young (under 25) and senior-level (over 50) learners. Digital operations programmes were popular with early-career (30 year old and younger) learners, and technology with early-career (30 year old and younger) learners.

Most learners used the mobile app for learning programmes instead of a desktop.

It was learned that a majority of the respondents prefer the Bootcamp learning model of applied learning aligned with industry requirements. About 75 per cent of the professionals prefer programmes that focus on applied learning, along with projects and practice labs coupled with industry partnerships and accreditations

Krishna Kumar, founder and CEO, Simplilearn reveals witnessing, “a 60 per cent jump in enrollments in the early days of lockdown itself. In fact, usage on the platform has doubled compared to pre-pandemic times. Another factor which contributed to this was career uncertainty and job losses, which made it clear to many professionals that digital skills are key to career stability and growth.” He highlighted the fact that due to the pandemic, organisations came to realise that “online learning plays an important role in employee engagement in an ever growing virtual ecosystem.”

Not surprisingly, over the last 6 months, Simplilearn has on boarded over 50,000 corporate learners across 12 countries, led by India, the US, Thailand and Oman.

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A report by RazorpayX, which is the neo-banking wing of Razorpay, reveals that the travel and hotel reimbursements reduced by 90 and 74 per cent, respectively. Decline of 83 and 60 per cent, respectively was witnessed in food and fuel reimbursement too, because of the work-from-home arrangement.

Not surprisingly, Internet and telephone reimbursements have gone up with startups trying to go all out to ensure seamless connectivity for their employees.

While 70 per cent startups have been seriously affected by the pandemic, about 68 per cent have had to cut down operational and administrative expenses to stay afloat.

The study was undertaken to examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the payroll in the startup ecosystem.

It was discovered that 24 per cent of the employees in startups suffered pay cuts in April. However, September onwards things have started to improve and in November, only 14 per cent of employees were still facing salary cuts.

In the first few months of the lockdown, entry-level jobs had dropped by 30-40 per cent. By August, a steady growth of 5 per cent was witnessed in startups hiring for entry-level roles. However, hiring at the senior level was not affected. There was a 15 per cent spike in hiring for senior roles between April and November.

Contractual and temporary hiring have gained popularity. Startups are trying to conserve cash by going for project-based hiring for a period of six to 12 months. Freelancers and contractors are highly sought after, with their demand increasing by 114 per cent from April to November.

Only 59 per cent startups paid out employee bonuses in the past eight months.

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The ‘Global Stakeholder Series’ report states that a good 79 per cent professionals in India feel that technology should play a significant role in ensuring workplace safety and wellbeing of the employees.

Of the 20,000 people surveyed across 10 countries, 4,000 were professionals from India. Of these, 65 per cent Indian employees feel that closing global inequalities should be a high priority for businesses. Sixty one per cent of the Indian respondents believe it is critical that their employers give back to their community. Indian professionals seem to have a lot more trust in business and government compared to the rest of the population around the world. A significant 89 per cent of survey participants from India have complete faith in the ability of businesses to create a better future. About 70 per cent trust business leaders to create a better future.

The report reveals that the remote working option may not be easily available to everyone around the world. It will be a luxury for a sizeable section of the population and challenges will differ from region to region.

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At least one-third of the anonymous respondents felt their workplace was culturally unsafe, 38 per cent reported being treated unfairly, 44 per cent reported hearing racial slurs and 59 per cent have encountered comments on their appearance and ways to ‘rectify’ the same.

About 78 per cent, that is, almost four in every five respondents felt it was important to share their Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander background at the workplace. However, more than one fourth did not feel comfortable discussing their culture and felt their opinions and experiences were not valued.

The numbers from the research clearly indicate systematic racism and discrimination in Australian workplaces, where the natives work.

Interestingly, at least 63 per cent experienced ‘identity strain’ at work, that is, the feeling of being conscious of one’s identity due to other people making them hyper-aware of their external appearance. Another 40 per cent of the indigenous people surveyed, mentioned facing extra workload.

Only a third admitted to receiving support from their workplace when they reported. Only one in five indigenous people, works for an employer who takes action against racism and has an anti-discrimination training programme with reference to indigenous discrimination.

The Diversity Council Australia, is a non-profit organisation that promotes diversity and inclusion at the workplace, and has over 600 corporate members.

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These professionals have yet to be studied in detail for their potential to employ people and create jobs. For instance, many fresh commerce graduates, data analysts and cyber-security specialists also find jobs with chartered accountants. Not all chartered accounts set up their own practises, a significant number take up jobs with various organisations.

The country has about two million registered lawyers, and more than 1.15 million doctors (allopathy), and over three lakh chartered accountants, who have the potential to create jobs. The survey is expected to give a clearer and bigger picture of the job environment in India.

The Committee set up to assist the Labour Bureau in this survey, will be headed by SP Mukherjee, labour economist and emeritus professor of Calcutta University.

This Committee will decide on the schedules, sampling design, methodology and other technicalities.

The resultant data will help evaluate the employment scenario better so that suitable policies can be formulated.

The Labour Bureau is already doing a study on migration workers and the manner in which they have been affected by the pandemic. The Committee led by Mukherjee is assisting the Bureau in fine-tuning the same, as reported by Mint.

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Globally, about 80 per cent of the workforce is open to receiving therapy from a robot instead of a human being. About 34 per cent feel that robots will not judge them, while about 30 per cent believe that robots will serve as an unbiased outlet for sharing or venting their problems. Twenty-nine per cent of those surveyed felt that robots give quick answers to mental health-related questions.

Interestingly, about 68 per cent of people feel they would be more comfortable approaching a robot to discuss workplace stress and anxiety rather than their own managers! About 91 per cent Indian professionals would rather seek help from a robot than their own manager when it comes to work-related stress or anxiety. 75 percent of global workforce and 95 per cent of Indian professionals admit that artificial intelligence (AI) has been helpful in ensuring their mental health at work!

The reason why they feel robots are more effective are:

• About 30 per cent professionals feel that AI has provided them the relevant information required to perform their task effectively.

• About 27 per cent feel that AI has helped them avoid burnout

• Twenty-seven per cent feel that it has helped decrease stress by helping them prioritise their work

• A good 51 per cent admit that AI has helped reduce their workweek and given them a chance for longer vacations.

• A significant 63 per cent feel that AI improves productivity, while 54 per cent feel it increases job satisfaction

• It improves the overall well-being of the employees say 52 per cent

Not surprisingly, 70 per cent of people globally have faced more stress and anxiety at work this year than ever before. A significant 84 per cent of Indian workforce experienced higher stress and anxiety in 2020.

Clearly, it is time for employers to take note of the fact that their workforces are undergoing a lot of stress and their mental health should be their top priority. After all, 85 per cent of those surveyed have said that work-related anxiety and depression have affected their domestic life.

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If organisations align technology implementation to their culture, there is 644 per cent higher chances of employees feeling successful, 424 per cent higher chances of employee engagement and 296 per cent more likelihood of increase in revenue.

What is worrisome is, that organisations seem to be ill-equipped in terms of  technology infrastructure. Even before the COVID-19 outbreak and the resultant work-from-home situation, organisations were lagging in terms of technology infrastructure. Almost 20 per cent of respondents reported that their organisation had ceased to spend on latest technology. A good 31 per cent admitted that the existing technology was not easy to use.

The pandemic surely took organisations by surprise. The 2021 Global Culture Report by O.C. Tanner, rightly states that “The world has never seen workplace cultures change faster than they did  in 2020”. The report examines how cultures can be affected by “crises, technology, recognition, inclusion, leadership and a new generation of workers.” When it comes to factors challenging organisations now, the top five responses were: losing business due to Covid-19 (45 per cent); adapting to changing economic conditions (37 per cent); dealing with new government regulations (34 per cent); downsizing or layoffs (24 per cent) and dealing with changing international trade conditions (23 per cent)

Organisations that have become more transparent with their employees since March, have experienced 85 per cent more employee engagement.  The organisations with no formal recognition programme in place have witnessed 20 per cent higher intention to leave.

When it comes to diversity and inclusion, 44 per cent employees feel that their company’s D&I efforts are not sincere. About 31 per cent of employees who self-identify with any minority group by race, gender, disability or sexual orientation are more likely to feel that the D&I initiatives at their workplace are insincere. About 67 per cent are likely to consider that the D&I policies are more to do with labelling such employees than actually accepting them. A good 83 per cent are likely to feel that organisations talk about diversity in such a way that classifies employees into conventional categories that are inaccurate representations of their true selves.

The study reveals that minority employees face microaggressions at work more often than the others. While only 17 per cent able bodied employees are likely to face microaggression from senior leaders, 48 per cent employees with documented disabilities are likely to face microaggression from their senior leaders. Similarly, while 17 per cent able bodied may face microaggression from team members, the figure is 56 per cent for those with disabilities. Also, those with disabilities are 54 per cent less likely to feel they belong and 115% more likely to suffer from acute burnout. Gay, lesbian and bisexual employees are also 63 per cent less likely to feel they belong at an organisation and 98 per cent more likely to suffer from severe burnout.

Clearly, employees who identify as “different” from the rest in any way, are more likely to suffer greater burnout, and feel lesser sense of belonging and experience more instances of microaggressions.

If D&I agendas are not adequately implemented by organisations employees are likely to be 78 per cent less engaged.

Click here to download the full report.

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Considering the pace at which the workplaces are changing and evolving, if you are still dependent on a once-a-year survey to assess employee engagement, understand that the data you have collected can be pretty much obsolete by the time you assess it. That is where employee pulse surveys come in.

Let’s take a look at some interesting statistics:

I) 90% of employees said they are more likely to stay at a company that takes and acts on feedback (Achievers / 2020 Engagement & Retention Report)

II) Active disengagement costs between 450 billion and 550 billion per year in the US. (Gallup)

III) The average company’s biggest productivity losses are often caused by less than 20 per cent of employees who are ‘disengaged’ or ‘extremely disengaged’ (Hay Group)

IV) 64 per cent of organisations only measure employee engagement annually (Deloitte)

As scary and disheartening as the statistics seem, it only strengthens the worth of pursuing pulse surveys.

Employee pulse surveys – like the one offered by Xoxoday Empuls – are a quick and powerful way to truly understand the voice of the employee (VoE). Pulse surveys deal with complex, but straight forward questions to provide a quick insight into an organisation’s health and well-being – and hence the name ‘pulse’.

The success of employee pulse surveys, however, depends on the quality of the questions that are presented to the employees. It is important to make the questions as precise, simple and easy to understand as possible. And that is where Xoxoday stands out from the rest.

Why Xoxoday Pulse Surveys?

Xoxoday has collaborated with SHRM – a pioneer and thought leader in the HR space – to build a state-of-the-art employee-engagement pulse survey. The survey has been carefully crafted after thousands of situational researches – leaving no stone unturned to make it one of the most effective.

Xoxoday pulse survey helps organisations measure, analyse and improve the various factors that affect engagement, productivity and performance. Unlike conventional surveys, Xoxoday’s model has crisp questions that cover the four key aspects of organisational culture, to bring out the precise gaps and pain points.

Let’s take a deeper look at these key dimensions:

1. Strategic connect

How connected are your employees to the organisation’s strategic goals, vision and mission? Do they understand how their job roles contribute to the greater good?
Employees feel connected to the organisation only when they find their jobs to be meaningful and aligned to a greater purpose. Pulse surveys can help determine how connected the employees are towards the organisation’s vision and mission, and how well they understand the organisation’s goals. Understanding the gaps in-time and devising strategies to make sure that everyone in the organisation is working towards a common vision can drive phenomenal results in terms of engagement, motivation and business outcome.

2. Hygiene factors

How clear is your workforce with their roles and responsibilities? How well do they understand the ground rules of an organisation? How safe do they feel financially and psychologically?
Pulse surveys can be used to understand all these aspects. Employees feel engaged and connected to the organisation when they know for a fact that they are valued in the company, and that the organisation truly cares about their physical, emotional and financial wellbeing. Not just that, employees also look for values, norms, respect and dignity at the workplace.

3. Relationship & culture

Do employees have friends within the organisation? Are there enough opportunities for them to bond with their colleagues? Do they have fun at their workplace?
Human beings, by nature, are social creatures and thrive on interpersonal relationships and interactions. Pulse surveys can help analyse the state of employee relationships in the office and find out if there are gaps in this area. Creating opportunities for employees to bond and connect can have a great deal of influence on teamwork, engagement and employee performance.

4. Recognition & career growth

Do the employees feel appreciated and recognised? Do they feel they are progressing in their career trajectory? Do they feel like they have enough opportunities to learn?

Who doesn’t like being appreciated? As humans, we all crave for appreciation in the jobs we do. Pulse surveys help understand if the organisation’s reward and recognition strategies are on the right track and if the employees really feel they are valued in the company. Employees are motivated to perform better when they see that they have ample opportunities to learn and grow. Understanding each employee’s aspirations and creating opportunities to fulfil these aspirations is what makes the difference.

Like most organisations across the globe, if you too find measuring employee engagement to be a challenge, check out the SHRM-Xoxoday Pulse Survey today. Measure your employee engagement, analyse the gaps and build strategies to keep your workforce engaged and motivated. Xoxoday has been helping thousands of companies across the world to connect, align and motivate their workforce.

(The author, Manoj Agarwal is an MBA from IIM Kozhikode and he brings over 12 years of experience in technology, product, marketing and business excellence. He has worked with companies like Yahoo, Manipal Education and Flipkart in various roles.)

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Almost 90 per cent of the workers in the Asia-Pacific region, including Australia, Malaysia and Singapore, are against returning to the ‘old normal’ way of work. It can be gathered that few aspects of the new normal have been greatly beneficial for employees.

Around 59 per cent want to see flexible working hours introduced permanently in the future as well. Another 58 per cent would like working from home to be a permanent feature of the post-COVID world. There has been a shift towards more focus on one’s self during this time. Employees are more concerned about taking care of their mental and physical health, with almost 47 per cent in support of it.

It has been found that women are more concerned with taking care of their mental and physical wellbeing, with more than half desirous of the opportunity for it in the future. In contrast, among the male employees, only 43 per cent want to focus on their health.

Overall, in terms of priority, health and wellbeing seem to be the number one among APAC workers and 27 per cent have citied it as the most important aspect they want leaders to focus on.

Increase in family time is also a much-desired feature among the people as spending more time with their loved ones has been a fortunate outcome of the current situation. This is especially true for the younger generation aged between 18 to 24 years (57 per cent) as compared to those above 50 years (47 per cent) and even less for those above 65 (37 per cent).

Only around 11 per cent of employees appeared to be happy to return to how things were before the pandemic began.

At the same time, apart from health, workers are also focussed on other areas, such as work-life balance and job security. More than four in ten respondents are eager to see a reduction in unnecessary work meetings and outside commitments (43 per cent). Around 48 per cent of women are more eager to see a reduction in outside work commitments than men who number at 38 per cent.

Close to one-third of the lot also want to see lesser travelling in the name of business.

One surprising aspect emerged in terms of upskilling opportunities. While leaders have constantly emphasised the need to learn and upgrade, only 38 per cent of the workers have cited online professional development avenues as a necessity.

Overall, health and wellbeing, job security and work-life balance are the three areas, which workers feel need to be prioritised upon.

Rosie Cairnes, vice president, Skillsoft, APAC finds the emergence of a more inward mindset among workers across APAC interesting. According to Caines, there appears a trend to reject the conventional way of working — whether in terms of deciding when and how to work, prioritising family over work and travel, focussing on personal health, or taking charge of professional development.

She further mentions that there is a trend towards genuine self-care. For companies to reach the other side of this pandemic in a good place, employee well-being and wellness must become a permanent focus, and not just something that gets addressed during crisis.

Gender, age, and racial diversity also in focus

Supporting flexible work for both working parents and hiring more older workers are among the top issues that APAC workers want leaders to stress on. Around 38 per cent want more flexible work and close to 33 per cent want more support for older workers.

The younger workforce comprising Gen Z, is more geared towards increase in learning and training around racial diversity, and almost 38 per cent want their organisations to support the issue. The younger generation, including the Millennials are also the most in favour of equal maternity and paternity leaves for parents, numbering around 34 per cent, as compared to their older counterparts. Only 25 per cent of workers between 35 to 49 years deem it an important issue, and the figures drop further as we move up the age ladder.

Women are more in favour of equal gender representation and reduction in the gender pay gap than men, numbering around 28 per cent in both cases. Among men, the figures rest around 20 per cent.

“Across APAC there is a strong push for policies and practices that promote greater gender, age, and racial balance,” reveals Cairnes. With more youngsters set to join the workforce, this push will only grow stronger. Organisations that revise their hiring and policies and concentrate on their future learning and development in these areas will benefit immensely “in terms of available talent, employee engagement and retention,” concludes Cairnes.

The study has been conducted by Skillsoft through a survey of more than 2,300 workers and people about to enter the workforce across Australia, Malaysia and Singapore.

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The report also revealed that the professionals working for large enterprises seemed optimistic about their employers’ future. While 63 per cent felt their employers would recover and be better off in a year’s time, 41 per cent felt their enterprises would do well in the next six months. However, this same level of confidence did not exist when it came to their jobs, careers and personal finances.

This fortnightly survey studies the pulse of Indian professionals, and in the May 4 to 31 fortnight, it appears that on the whole, the country’s executives were confident about the future of the enterprises they were working for. However, the confidence level in terms of jobs, had begun to dip. Professionals employed in the healthcare, manufacturing and corporate service industries seemed inclined to cut down on personal spending and personal investments in the next six months.

The survey that covered executives from different professional backgrounds, attempted to study their confidence in their employers’ outlook, as well as their take on remote working and state of personal finances.

The report reveals that, professionals in enterprises with over 10,000 workers seemed more confident about the future of their employers, with a confidence in employer index (CIE) score of +24. The employees from mid-market and SMB companies were less confident, with a CIE score of +15 and +16, respectively.

While professionals working for large enterprises were more optimistic about their companies performing better, their confidence level was low when it came to their own jobs. About 41 per cent enterprise professionals felt their companies would do better in the next 6 months, while 63 per cent felt their companies would pick up in a year’s time. However, with an individual confidence index (ICI) score of +42, enterprise professionals were least confident about the future of their jobs, careers and finances. Their SMB counterparts, on the other hand, had a higher ICI score of +51, and the mid-market professionals had a score of +50.

About 38 per cent of those working in the manufacturing space, 40 per cent of those employed in corporate service and 45 per cent of those employed in the healthcare sector, anticipated cutting down their personal spending in the next six months.

Also, 52 per cent of employees from healthchare, 48 per cent from corporate services and 41 per cent from manufacturing saw themselves reducing their investments in the next six months.

A significant 40 per cent of the workforce in the country expected an immediate fall in the number of jobs and interviews. Interestingly, more than one in three professionals admitted that they would be devoting more time to updating their resumes, and preparing for interviews. A good 67 per cent stated that they would go on spending more time on learning online.

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So what are these CHROs doing to control the crisis? Frankly, most organisations – close to 50 per cent — are looking at a slew of employee cost-reduction interventions. Deferring incentives and cancelling promotions for almost a year seem to be the most popular strategies. This is followed by downward pay revision and reduction of incentives.

When it comes to reduction in pay or restructuring of compensation, this trend is more popular among smaller firms, with a turnover of less than 100 crore, whereas larger companies have been leveraging lower incentive pay to reduce cost. In fact, a majority of the firms in the automobile and pharmaceuticals sectors have witnessed a reduction in incentive payout

After compensation and benefits and employee communication, next on the agenda for CHROs is learning and development. Almost 90 per cent of the respondents cited a greater emphasis on learning, with virtual classrooms, webinars and e-learning modules being the most trending modes of learning.

A significant majority of firms, irrespective of size — including those with turnover below 100 crore — are involved in providing e-learning avenues for their employees. In most of the mid-sized and larger firms—with more than 500 full-time employees — employees have access to both virtual classrooms and e-learning avenues. At the same time, few organisations, numbering less than 20, do not offer even the e-learning option for their workers.

Larger firms, with more than 500 crore turnover, are reportedly using more learning tools and applications than their smaller counterparts. More than 30 smaller organisations with less than 500 full-time employees are not using any apps or tools for learning.

Industry-wise, the automobile, energy, ITeS, manufacturing, BFSI and retail sectors see the maximum usage of new learning apps and tools along with a small number in the pharma segment as well.

Post COVID, most companies are also considering redefining and changing organisational policies. Policies with regard to insurance, transport, and remote working allowance are being considered for a change, and around 20 per cent of the respondents claimed to have already implemented them.

When it comes to redefining the policy process within the organisation, the majority of the smaller firms, in addition to all the mid-sized ones, are open to changing their processes. On the other hand, the majority of the larger organisations declined to make any changes.

Bringing about a change is also an industry-specific decision according to the report. Except the energy industry, the rest, including retail, pharma, ITes, manufacturing, education, BFSI and electronics, agree to redefine the policy process in the long run.

The participant CHROs also spoke about hiring, and it was indicated that although there is a hiring freeze across all sectors, the impact varies according to the employee level. More than 50 per cent of the respondents believe that entry-level hiring will be the least impacted, while almost 50 per cent believe hiring for gig workers will be affected. While the recruitment of management trainees may continue, close to 46 per cent believe hiring for management-level positions may be put on hold.

The CHROs also had a piece of advice for the future. They felt the focus should be on business sustainability and employee productivity in the short term. Creatively managing employee cost and productivity, continuous communication, training and focus on employee wellbeing will be key during this time.

In the longer run, they predict bigger challenges along two major threads. The first is that of business turnaround, including concerns over business model, customer relationships and impact of revenue among others. The second is the transformation challenge, which calls for companies completely re-imagining their way of work.

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The survey revealed that over 70 per cent or around 72 per cent of the MSME enterprises were planning to reduce employee headcount to manage their businesses and get back on track. The report highlights the extent to which India’s job market has been adversely affected due to the lockdown following the COVID-19 outbreak.

India has over 65 million MSMEs employing more than 150 million people. Over 130 million people are self-employed. Startups account for 11 per cent of the total number of MSMEs.

The survey results were based on the responses collected from 46,562 respondents.

The survey was undertaken by AIMO in association with other organisations, such as Digitally 4 Empowerment (D4E), a social tech enterprise, and trade bodies such as Federation of Indian Industry (FII), Association of Indian Industry (AII), Cement Manufacturer’s Welfare Association (CMWA), Consortium of Women Entrepreneurs of India (CWEI), Federation of Indian Women Entrepreneurs (FIWE), First World Community (FWC), Chamber of Small Industry Association (COSIA), Amausi Industries Association, Lucknow (AIA) and Federation of Small and Medium Industries (FOSMI).

According to K. E. Raghunathan, the extent of job loss across the country will be revealed only by the end of August, 2020, as most respondents are in the process of gauging the number of returning employees and optimum employee strength required to sustain their business in the near future.

The report stated that 35 per cent of the MSMEs and 37 per cent of the self-employed respondents are pessimistic about recovering their businesses, and have begun shutting down operations.

Among the MSMEs, 14 per cent said there will be no reduction in workforce and another 14 per cent were uncertain. Among the larger corporate players, 18 per cent said they will not be reducing employee strength, while 40 per cent of the remaining were unsure.

The report by AIMO revealed that key concerns among the companies were demand forecast, collection of pending dues, raw materials, future EMI payments and salary issues. Money and manpower at a reasonable cost are the needs of the hour for quick revival of business.

The participants of the survey suggested that distribution of raw materials through Government undertaking, National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC), similar to a public distribution system (PDS) may be able to bring some relief. In addition, AIMO has asked the Government to allow banks to accept bill discounting facility for all sales invoices raised in the next three months, irrespective of the party being billed.

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Based on responses from about 1,345 HR managers, the Survey reveals that the biggest challenge for HR managers was to maintain the productivity of the employees. While 50 per cent of the respondents felt they were moderately prepared to deal with the current situation, about 32 per cent felt they were adequately equipped. However, 17 per cent HR managers admitted that they were not sufficiently equipped to deal with the challenges thrown up by the present scenario.

Almost 63 per cent of the HR managers surveyed felt they would like to continue with the remote working arrangement even after complete lifting of lockdown.

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The data from CMIE reveals that in April this year, about 27 million youth were rendered jobless owing to the lockdown. These unemployed youth belonged to the 20 to 30-year age bracket.

Interestingly, about 33 million people in their 30s were rendered jobless last month, of which 86 per cent were men.

Eleven per cent of those rendered jobless belonged to the age group of 20 to 24 years. This age group accounted for 8.5 per cent of the total employed youth in India last year.

Last month, that is, April 2020, there were only 20.9 million with jobs, whereas at the same time last year, there were 34.2 million of these youngsters with jobs.

As for the 25 to 29-year age bracket, 14 million lost their jobs. They made up 11.1 per cent of the total employed people last year and 11.5 per cent of those rendered jobless..

Youngsters, that too about 27 million of them, losing their jobs can have grave ramifications, according to experts. Comeptition will be high for them since there will be new entrants in the labour force, and jobs will be lesser. This will make it difficult for the youth to save up for their old age. Households will lose the surplus cash that came from the earnings of these youngsters, and will affect their savings significantly in the long run.

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“While 30 per cent of employees surveyed worked remotely at least part of the time before the pandemic, the Gartner analysis reveals that the post-pandemic, 41 per cent are likely to work remotely at least some of the time,” says Brian Kropp, chief of research for the Gartner HR practice. “Ultimately, the COVID-19 pandemic has many employees planning to work in a way that they hadn’t previously considered.”

The flipside to having remote workers is that there remains a risk of high turnover. A survey carried out by the organisation in the first quarter of 2020 revealed that workers operating out of office display a higher intent of staying with their current employer than remote workers.

This means that now more than ever, managers need to understand how to engage their remote staff and drive productivity while at it.

The NEAR model employs four steps to ensure that workers feel encouraged and enabled by their managers to work remotely.

Coach them to success

The survey analysis found that around two-fifths of the remote workers want their work to be more self-directed and not be micromanaged by their superiors. This entails that managers must trust their employees to deliver and coach them rather than direct all their work. The focus needs to be on output rather than the process.

Enable the social connection

Another survey by Gartner, fielded in the fourth quarter of 2019, revealed that more than 40 per cent of employees feel disconnected with their peers, and more than a quarter of them suffer from isolation.

There is a need for managers to understand when an employee is exhibiting signs of distress, as it can hamper productivity. Organisations have to work in tandem with their HR teams to learn to identify the signals and encourage team members to build social and emotional connections, so that work can progress in a seamless manner.

Promote two-way connection

While working remotely, instances of employees receiving corrective feedback are higher than of them hearing positive comments on things well done. This effectively makes conversations a one-way street, with the manager in the driving seat. Employees do not feel welcome to voice their opinions.

To solve this, managers must focus on keeping a balance. Applauding one’s employees for work done well with concrete examples goes a long way to promoting a healthy exchange of ideas and to making communication a two-way street, which is vital while working remotely.

Setting expectations

It is often assumed that remote workers operate solo. However, the analysis by Gartner has shown that employees who work fully remote are 3.5 times more likely to be involved with multiple teams across the organisation. This can take a toll on individual contribution and lead to disparate expectations from individuals.

Managers must take the lead in setting expectations and defining objectives with individual team members and also the larger team. This will ensure that there is effective collaboration across teams and individuals contribute effectively.

“While the majority of organisations are not currently hiring, nor are the majority of workers actively seeking new jobs, organisations do need to consider how they are managing their workforce. If companies are not thinking through the employee experience they are creating, they could face significant attrition when the labour market opens back up,” concludes Kropp.

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However, the positive revelations of the survey were that approx. 79 per cent of those surveyed admitted that they never lost out on a promotion due to their gender. Also, about 62 per cent shared that post the #Metoo movement, sensitivity towards women has increased at the workplace.

A good 23 per cent of the respondents were employees from the IT sector, while 20 per cent belonged to the manufacturing sector, and ten per cent to the healthcare space. About eight per cent of the respondents were from the BPO sector.

Interestingly, a majority of the respondents fell into the 25 to 34 age category, whereas the present multigenerational workforce comprises a mix of Baby boomers (those born between 1944 t0 1964), Gen X (born between 1965 to 1979) Gen Y or Millennials (born between 1980 and 1994). However, the survey also indicates that there will be a change with more Millennials joining the workforce in the immediate future.

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OnePoll, on behalf of Citrix, interviewed around 500 working professionals across private and government sectors in the country, for this survey.

Close to 60 per cent of the respondents of the survey accept that they work outside their regular office hours. The engagement is in the form of joining work-related calls, sending emails or instant messages for work purposes.

So what forces them to do so? No, it isn’t only for monetary benefits, though around 34 percent agreed to have got paid for this overtime, while another 34 per cent felt that it would improve their chances of getting a promotion or a bonus. There were also others, who had the desire to set an example or do the extra work and many blame it on the work culture.

Around 45 per cent of the respondents believe that improved processes aided by better technology can help reduce the extra time overload.

Blame it on the employer

Does this mean that four day a week is a distant dream? Seems likely! Over one-third (38 per cent) of the respondents opine that it’ll take at least five years for their employer to be able to offer a four-day work week on the same salary as a five-day work week. Add to that another 20 per cent feel that their employer would never be able to offer a four-day week. On the contrary, a staggering 97 per cent said they were keen to adopt a four-day work week if given the opportunity provided there it meets their terms and conditions – 62 per cent said they would only agree for a 4-day week only if they were offered the same salary.

While businesses feel that shorter work week would have an adverse effect on productivity and work culture, around 80 per cent of office workers agree that a national four-day work week is not achievable because it requires a cultural shift in how we approach or define work. Close to 88 per cent of respondents agree that future productivity levels will only improve if businesses embrace different ways and attitudes towards work; while 78 per cent of the respondents agree that an outdated approach to the working week is holding back businesses from their potential productivity.

Probably smart working is an answer to this problem and help us inch closer to the goal. How organisations take this up is for all of us to ponder.

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Second on the list is Saudi Arabia, where 56 per cent of those surveyed believe their jobs will get automated. The figure was 55 per cent in the case of China.

Only 23 per cent of Japanese employees and about 33 per cent of South Korean employees are confident of retaining their jobs post automation. In Russia, about 50 per cent hope to retain their jobs in the face of automation.

The reason behind the high confidence level of urban Indian professionals is primarily the fact that the job market in the country is driven by hierarchy. Promotions are given based on performance. Indian professionals believe that artificial intelligence and automation will never be able to replace human intelligence completely. They believe that automation will only help them perform better and more efficiently.

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The ranking is based on assessment of company culture, workforce strategy as well as practices of onboarding, talent acquision, learning and development, performance management, leadership development, career management and succession planning among other factors.

Wipro has scored high in terms of its commitment to implementing people strategies that have helped improve the work life of its employees and provided them a great work experience.

Its innovative and human-centric people practices have helped its employees realise their true potential.

It was recently reported that Wipro is gearing up to expand its operations in the state of Victoria, Australia. The Company will be setting up a 1.5 million dollar state-of-the-art Cyber Defence Centre.

This new 1.5 million (Australian) dollar centre, will offer internship opportunities for university graduates pursuing a career in cyber security in the country. The Centre, which will come up in South Melbourne, is aimed at providing the organisations protection from cyber-attacks. It will also create 100 new tech jobs for the locals. This is just another step that proves Wipro’s commitment to harnessing local talent and expertise to help it cater to the cyber security needs of Australia.

With this move, Wipro has helped strengthen the investment relationship between India and Victoria.

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In an online survey, over 150 organisations across nine industries were questioned on their hiring intent for 2020, including what kind of candidates they are looking at, where they plan to source them from, and how.

About 56 per cent of employers are looking to hire for 2020 as compared to 64 per cent in 2019. Although there is a decline, mostly due to the sluggish economy, the figures are nonetheless positive.

Candidates with one to five years of experience are most in demand. Companies prefer to hire maximum engineering graduates, followed by general graduates, including those with BCA, BSc and B.com degrees among others. There has also been a surge in the demand for MBA and post-graduate students among employers.

The increase in hiring engineering and management graduates across IITs and IIMs this year is a testament to the results found in the survey.

Such is the demand in terms of talent across industries. However, the supply side of the story presents a slightly different scenario.

The supply side

Looking from an employability perspective, management graduates are the most employable while the employability score for BTech students dipped to 49 percent as against 57 per cent last year. The decline can be seen across all courses in engineering.

The Master of Computer Applications (MCA) course has also seen a decline of almost 18 per cent this year. Given that India is considered the IT hub of Asia, this finding presents a paradox of sorts.

Moreover, the industry trends continuously point towards adoption of advanced technologies, such as AR/VR, robotics and automation, which again will open up a plethora of new skills in the market. A lack of adequate resources will leave these areas unfulfilled and hit the productivity of the industries employing them.

Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh are the most employable states for 2020

In a jump from last year, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu climbed up the ranks, from the 9th and 10th positions respectively, to rank among the top three with maximum supply of employable talent among all union territories and states in India.

On close examination of the cities, Mumbai emerges at the top followed by Hyderabad which made its entry into the list for the first time. Other states, such as Delhi, Bengaluru, Pune, Lucknow and Chennai have remained among the top ten for the past six years.

Gender parity

Taking a look at the employability of men and women across the country, the results were rather encouraging. Male and female employability scores stand almost at par, with women taking a one per cent lead ahead of men at 47 per cent.

Even during 2014, the employability score of women stood at 42 per cent while the score for males stood lower at 30 per cent.

However, the numbers show a completely different picture when we look at the scores for participation at work. The participation rate for males has increased from 71 per cent in 2014 to an estimated 77 per cent in 2020. On the other hand, for women, the participation rates have decreased from 29 per cent in 2014 to an estimated 23 per cent in 2020.

However, the increase in the number of job-ready women presents a good opportunity for corporate India to harness their talent and engage more women in jobs. This will be a critical step towards filling the skills gap in the country.

The biggest pools of skilled women are to be found in the states of Telangana, Delhi and Rajasthan. Further, at the city level, Hyderabad, Ghaziabad and Vishakhapatnam house the highest number of employable women.

Hyderabad and Ghaziabad offer the most in terms of both men and women candidates.

For male candidates, Delhi, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh contained the highest number of employable talent, state-wise. At the city level, employable male talent could be found in Mumbai, Ghaziabad and Hyderabad.

In terms of specific skills available, Telangana, Rajasthan and Delhi ranked amongst the top three positions for business communication skills and critical thinking skills. Delhi aced when it came to business communication, critical thinking and computer skills, but dropped the ball when it came to producing candidates skilled in numerical ability.

Rajasthan on the other hand, aced all four categories of critical thinking, numerical ability, business communication and computer skills, ranking consistently amongst the top three.

India is set to become the youngest country with the median age projected to be 29 for next year. To leverage this demographic to the maximum, academia, industry and students themselves need to find ways to skill themselves in order to access opportunities in the national and global job markets.

The post Only 46 per cent employable talent for 2020: Survey appeared first on HR Katha.

Compared to the earlier round of survey in January-February this year, the level of optimism has fallen drastically.

About two thirds of the Millennials (those born between 1981 and 1996, that is, aged between 23 and 38) surveyed from mid-September to mid-October admit that finding jobs these days is a huge challenge. Even post-Millennials, that is those born after 1996, feel the same. Considering that Millennials and post-Millennials together make up about 50 per cent of the country’s population, the scenario is far from bright.

While over a third of the respondents feel they hope to be financially better off in about two years’ time, approx. a fifth expect to be worse off. About one fourth of the respondents expect their situation to be more or less similar to what it is at present, while the remaining are uncertain of the future.

The YouGov-Mint Millennial Surveys attempt to study the choices and attitudes of Indian digital natives. Of the 9,324 people surveyed online in the latest round, about 4908 were Millennials, 1888 were pre-Millennials and 2528 were post-Millennials.

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