Time for Trusting Employees More

During the recent Bangalore floods, one of the trolls that went viral goes like this, "Bangalore is the only city in the world where techies travel four hours to their office to develop an e-commerce app that delivers in 10 minutes." It takes a sarcastic dig at flooded roads worsening the already notorious traffic jams in the city. A picture depicting people working from one of the city's newly built Skywalks with flooded roads right below them also became the epicenter of discussions around the work culture. If you can work from a footbridge, why not enable `work from home'?

Well, we are not even talking about a radical shift here. An employee's basic needs still revolve around a salary contributing to their financial wellness, a sense of safety and stability, and opportunities for learning, growth, and career development. The difference is that they're not quite enough by themselves. Today, employees have higher expectations for work flexibility in terms of when and where they work.

Several studies imply this elementary fact. According to Gartner's research, organizations would risk losing up to 39 percent of their workforce if they were to go back to a full onsite arrangement. A recent study by job site SCIKEY shows that remote working has now become the new normal, with 82 percent of employees preferring to work from home. It is no secret that people have developed new habits in the two years of the pandemic. Hence, the biggest challenge for organizations will be about connecting hybrid workers with the core mission and vision of the organization. In other words, they will need to trust their employees more. This special issue is about the companies that have cracked this with their strategic planning and execution. Do let us know your thoughts.