Is the work-from-anywhere model losing its popularity?

While multinationals often “import policies” from their parent countries, some say India needs to account for contextual issues such as timeliness, general work ethic, professionalism, and other issues related to employee trust. (Illustration by Suneesh Kalarickal)

When COVID-19 hit India in 2020 and caused companies to revise their Human Resource (HR) policies, it was a Eureka moment for creative minds in corporate decision-making rooms. Across sectors, Work-From-Home (WFH), Work-From-Anywhere (WFA) and flexible working hours became the new norm.

But as pandemic concerns subsided, back-to-office calls have got louder.

Social commerce start-up Meesho, for instance, said recently it will drop the WFA policy it announced a year ago and will adopt a flexi-office model starting on June 1, 2023.

Meesho said it had conducted a survey that found a majority of employees feel the need for more in-person connection to “foster collaboration, live our culture of speedy execution, and form informal bonds”.

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Companies including Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Wipro, International Business Machines (IBM) India, Mercedes-Benz India, and PwC are implementing a hybrid work model as they prepare their back-to-office plans, Moneycontrol has reported. In fact, 30-40 percent of KPMG employees in India are already working from their offices.

Most of Lenovo India’s employees – over 60 percent – have opted for hybrid work, a combination of working out of a remote location and from their regular office space. TCS said 25 percent of its associates work from the office at least two days a week.

PwC India has moved to a hybrid model and doesn't expect people to punch in at a certain time of the day. As of now, half of PwC’s workforce is working out of the consulting firm’s offices and the offices of its clients.

So the question arises, is the WFA model losing its appeal?

Pluses and minuses 

For the $3.2-billion edtech firm Emeritus, virtual work has helped it to drastically increase employee productivity and diversity and gain access to the best global talent.

“If I were to have my way, I don’t ever see myself working from an office ever again,” Global Chief Human Resource Officer Ganesh S said.

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Before the company announced a shift to a ‘Virtual First Organisation’, the workforce comprised 30 percent women and 70 percent men. Today, the workforce is made up of 51 percent women and 48 percent men; 1 percent is classified as non-binary.

The HR leader claims the company’s attrition has also “dipped significantly.”

HR solutions firm Aon, in a recent report, said companies that plan to enforce in-office presence in the next few months recorded a 29 percent attrition rate. The rate for those that already function onsite was 20 percent. In companies with back-to-office plans and hybrid models, the attrition rate was 19 percent, the same as that in companies that allow employees to work virtually.

The WFH trend appears to be waning, with only about 9 percent of the companies in a survey in India allowing completely remote work as of August, the Aon survey said.

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Almost 25 percent of staff at construction management startup Powerplay works 100 percent remotely and the remaining personally prefer the hybrid model as their work entails collaboration with teammates or other departments.

“Those working remotely tend to visit the office once a quarter…a few even moved back to Bangalore from their hometowns,” said Ankita Sen, head of people and culture at Powerplay.

This became a norm early this year when many realised the importance of in-person collaboration to get work done faster, she added.

Hub and spoke 

Over time, industry experts say companies and employees have realised the benefits of WFH and started to adopt a “hub and spoke” model as the new normal.

To enable distributed workspaces, large corporations started partnering with flex space firms to offer location-agnostic workspaces to provide WFA options to their employees.

According to a Colliers-Awfis report, about 74 percent of office space occupiers are looking at distributed workspaces as a strategy to shift from location-centric to people-centric workspaces. About 53 percent of the occupiers prefer a combination of WFH and working out of office.

“Companies have realised that hybrid work provides employees the best of both worlds – experience of working from an office space while also being in the comforts of their own home at the same time,” said Amit Ramani, founder & CEO of Awfis, which offers co-working spaces.

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Companies are also expanding and exploring satellite offices that allows flexibility, agility and cost savings to both employees and employers. This is where flex spaces in those smaller cities can come to the rescue, he added.

Awfis has noticed that co-working spaces are now entering Tier II cities because of increasing demand induced by the reverse migration of employees after the pandemic erupted.

“Keeping up with the demand, Awfis has also rapidly expanded to many Tier II cities by opening premium workspaces to cater to the needs of the employees present there,” Ramani said.

The challenge 

Human resource experts say managing productivity and driving performance in a completely remote work space, with zero in-person connection, is a big challenge.

“The work-from-anywhere concept will last only for certain industries and sectors where the work and productivity are measurable and can be tracked without huge technology or manpower investments,” said Darshan Vyas, founder of hiring platform InRadius.

Over the last 2-3 months, a majority of companies onboard InRadius have been preferring new hires from the same city where they are based and those who are ready to work at least in a hybrid environment to start with.

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Deciding the ideal working model would depend on the business as a whole, said Pratik Vaidya, founder and managing director of HR solutions firm Karma Management.

With performance and driving business being the number one agenda for every business, irrespective of its size, Vyas said companies in India have been pushing for a minimum of three days of work from the office.

Sen of Powerplay says: “A hybrid work culture can be an option but not a compulsion.”