With trends like Moonlighting, Quiet Quitting and The Great Resignation, 2022 has been a tumultuous year for the Indian workplace. The penultimate months of 2022, a year which was marked by uncertainty, brought in more instability with layoffs in tech. In came inflation and recession fears which led to a freeze in hiring across the board. Experts are now recommending employees to brace for a cold tech winter. Therefore, the initial months of 2023 will likely be plagued by concerns around the dwindling economy and recession. With the US Federal Reserve hiking interest rates, the fear of losing jobs will likely be felt across offices. But — all is not lost, just yet. Given the rising cost of inflation, workplaces are likely to offer perks to employees in order to retain them. Another silver lining for the year 2023 are the upcoming tech innovations. From Metaverse hiring to AI-based automation — technology is likely to make the lives of employees easier. We reached out to the HR heads of some of the most reputed companies from across India to know from them what trends are likely to dominate the Indian workplace in 2023.
Salary hike to fight inflation
The pandemic taught us an important lesson — life is unpredictable. No one knows what might happen the next day — a virus outbreak? A lockdown? The uncertainty is looming over 2023 already with concerns around inflation and recession. What can the employers do to make their employees feel secure about their work and job in such times? SV Nathan, partner and chief talent officer, Deloitte India, says “During the pandemic, employers couldn’t do anything about the business downturn or the rapid spread of infections, or the lockdown. But there were so many future-focused employers where leaders took a pay cut so that staff don’t have to be furloughed or have their salaries cut/promotions frozen, or where organisations extended every possible avenue of care for employees and their loved ones”. Therefore, employees must now, more than ever, make their employees feel financially secure. Smriti Handa, CHRO, BharatPe recommends giving perks to fight inflation concerns. She says, “We recognise that the market is changing faster than ever before, and we must adapt. Employees usually initiate discussions about pay, but smart employers can try to anticipate potential concerns. To alleviate employees' financial burdens, there are alternatives to raising salaries or awarding bonuses. Paying special attention to employee engagement and motivation during a crisis is no less important than other forms of assistance.”
Swetha Harikrishnan, senior director — people, HackerEarth, makes a pertinent point: “There has been a lot of talk about workplace empathy since the pandemic. Now is the time to put that empathy into action”. She adds, “Employers can allow moonlighting so that employees feel more financially secure in a recessionary market. When trends like quiet quitting come up, employers can use that as an opportunity to have a discourse with their workforce instead of regressing to punitive measures as a knee-jerk reaction”.
AI-powered human resources
Is ChatGPT, the Artificial Intelligence chatbot by OpenAI, the next trend to take over the workplace? Ever since ChatGPT shot to fame, several people took to Google to search “will AI put me out of job?” Even if one doesn’t take ChatGPT into account, several operations in the HR department such as generating offer letters and hiring are already being automated. In fact, 40 per cent of operations in international companies are already being performed by AI algorithms. Will AI take the "human" out of human resources? HackerEarth’s Harikrishnan says, “Amazon tried to create an AI résumé screener in 2017 which turned out to be biased against women, because the data it was fed said that men made better engineers than women. Before we start to rely on AI to take over manual HR jobs, it is important to recognise our own unconscious biases so that we don't keep perpetrating them through machines. It's debatable whether we have reached that stage or not.” She adds, “AI will be embedded more, but not take over. We still need diverse human intelligence to run AI”.
Handa agrees. “The role of HR is here to stay and would rather gain strategic influence in the future. The ‘human’ aspect of Human Resources can never be neglected. Even the most sophisticated AI bots have flaws," she says. Piyush Mehta, CHRO, Genpact, adds, “We use Amber, an AI-automated chatbot to enhance employee engagement. Amber throws a body of feedback at the HR department. But the ability to process, synthesise and work on the data requires human effort. I feel the combination of AI and humans will give better results."
Metaverse comes to life
Besides AI, Metaverse, is another tech innovation likely to make its presence felt at the workplace. Gartner expects that by 2026, 25 per cent of people will spend at least one hour a day in a metaverse for work, shopping, education, social media and/or entertainment. As a result, it is likely that the Metaverse will make its way to the workplace in 2023. Organising virtual job fairs, recruitment drives, meetings are some of the many ways HR can use to leverage the Metaverse. Key events like company town halls and employee onboarding can also be seamlessly executed. “Virtual workspaces and meetings will reduce the dependence of employees on the office space. But Metaverse might take a while to replace the office space completely,” says Handa. Mehta is on the same page as Handa. “Metaverse is all about the immersive experience. I feel, it is the future of work. It doesn’t matter if it will explode this year or the year after but it is likely to have a lasting impact at the workplace. Some companies are already leveraging it but it is important to know that the technology is still in its nascent stages.”
The end of hybrid work
It has been a year since we experienced the last COVID-19 wave. Most Indians returned to office in 2022 either on a hybrid or full-time basis. What happens to remote work now? Is it likely to stay? Nathan opines that “Hybrid has presented itself as a best-of-both-worlds alternative. There is merit in continuing with it in the long-term. Simply reverting to everything as it was before the pandemic means treating the pandemic as a blip, instead of the learning that it was.” Handa says, “Companies that haven't fully embraced remote and hybrid work will use the upcoming economic downturn to justify return-to-office policies. Meanwhile, companies that have embraced new ways of working will find ways to maintain and improve hybrid and remote working policies. Organisations must rethink their workplace culture to be more inclusive of remote and hybrid work — which will be the new normal in 2023, albeit with a more structured force to contend with."
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