 "Marissa is wrong")
Thirty-one-year-old Prashant Srivastava is employed with a multinational IT services corporation and understands the significance of the work-from-home (WFH) option he enjoys. He is responsible for driving the below-the-line initiatives at the international level for the organisation. While his job involves fortnightly trips across India and some countries in the Asia Pacific region, whenever he is in his base location this arrangement allows him to spend time with his two-year-old son who returns from play-school by 3:00 pm. For the company, this translates into savings of about Rs 25,000 a month, which includes the rent it would have had to dole out for an additional workstation at its India headquarters. "I am glad my boss is not called Marissa Ann Mayer," he says in mirth while waiting for his supervisor to join him in a conference call from Singapore.
Recently, Mayer, president and CEO of Yahoo! drew a lot of flak from within the IT industry and outside, particularly from some of Yahoo's 11,500 employees as she revoked the WFH option. The internal memo regarding this, which was leaked by irate employees, has become a hot topic of debate in the last few weeks. "To become the absolute best place to work, communication and collaboration will be important, so we need to be working side-by-side... That is why it is critical that we are all present in our offices," the memo said. By June, all employees, especially those who have been working remotely full-time, are expected to report to a Yahoo! office. Contrary to earlier expectations, corporations like Google and IBM that also offer the WFH option to their employees did not follow suit. But at the same time, it raised a pertinent question: do companies compromise on productivity when they allow employees to work from home?
Before we proceed, a clarification. We understand Mayer is the custodian of Yahoo's health and we respect the fact that she has taken a decision based on hard facts. What we are saying here is, there are a whole host of companies that have made work-from-home work. So if you are a manager considering whether to follow in Yahoo's footsteps remember you could be throwing out the champagne with the cork.
The trend of remote working was started by Silicon Valley companies like IBM, Google and Yahoo!. And over the last few years, many other companies, including some home-grown ones like Airtel and HCL, have allowed a chunk of their workforce to choose the option of working from remote locations. Indeed, the practice has become so commonplace in markets like the US that people entering the workforce now see it as de rigueur (according to a recent Cisco study). And employers are beginning to see it as an incentive to retain the best people and keep them engaged.
Until, of course, the Mayer memo roiled the waters.
So where does India stand in this debate and was work-from-home a bad idea to start with?
The Strategist spoke to a range of companies across industries and found that while a large chunk of companies do not offer a WFH option to its employees, those that do have put in a lot of effort to design an efficient WFH plan, to put checks in place to track employee output and, at times, customise the option for employees based on their needs and the organisation's requirements. The takeaway is simple: an effective WFH policy means a lot of hard work for the human resources department of a company. It involves a lot of to-and-fro between the HR manager, the supervisor and the WFH employee and requires frequent re-examination. And if you can fix all of this right at the beginning, chances are you won't be looking over your shoulders and will have a greatly engaged workforce.
This also means keeping the people who work from office in the loop. Dhruv Desai, senior vice-president & head, HR and Leadership Academy, Angel Broking, says, "It is one thing to know that such options don't exist for all and it is another to know and see that some staff has such an option. When one set of people enjoys such options it may demoralise the other set and create uncomfortable atmosphere within the workplace." So, as an organisation, the best place to start is to be transparent.
The torch bearers
Take offshore IT services and software development company HCL Technologies, which sees telecommuting as an important part of its inclusive culture. All of its WFH arrangements are worked out through workshops dubbed 'co-creating balance in workplace'. The workshops attempt to understand the scenarios in which an employee seeks the option of telecommuting. The first check is to see if the employee's regular job can be done remotely. While an HR or a marketing executive can avail of this option easily, an employee who is responsible for network security will not be offered the chance to work from home. The latter has the option of changing the job profile if telecommuting is a pressing need for him/her. For example, one can choose to shift to a project that does not involve working on a customer network directly. On the other hand, project managers can work from home as their main job is coordination.
To ensure smooth coordination, you need to have some basic infrastructure. So, besides having a frank and open discussion about the options before the employees, the HR department must work out a check list of the desired home infrastructure, such as internet connectivity, availability of printers, video conferencing etc. Mind you, this is the easier part. What sometimes proves more difficult is dealing with what many experts call the "culture issue".
Sometimes, Indian homes are not conducive to a WFH arrangement. "Mostly Indian homes have too noisy backdrops to allow telecommuting," says Srimathi Shivashankar, AVP, diversity and sustainability, HCL Technologies. "Concepts like home offices are rare in India; and even if you overcome this by explaining the facilities the employee needs to put up, Indian families have difficulty coping with people who work from home. If you are seen in the house during the day, family members assume you are jobless; in short, available," she says. Here, it is up to the individual employee to work it out with his/her family members.
The facilities that an employer needs to offer - or an employee needs to put up - are a function of the deliverables. At e-commerce firm Yebhi.com, while employees have their deliverables defined right at the outset, there are in-house apps specific to roles that have been created to provide a virtual connect between peers, supervisors and customers, says Nikhil Rungta, the company's chief business officer. Such connectivity is important if the supervisor is to effectively mentor his subordinate and get the most out of him/her.
Jyorden T Mishra, founding member and MD of executive search consulting firm Spearhead InterSearch, points out that companies run the risk of losing productive employees if there is a problem in communication.
"A structured communication policy is crucial for smooth functioning. Collective output comes down when there's no one-on-one interaction. Also, employees lose out on the benefits of mentorship," he adds.
At public relations firm Genesis Burson-Marsteller, employees seeking to work from home are allowed to do so three days a week. They must come to office twice a week to discuss weekly deliverables with their supervisors. This is followed by a session to understand the available support system at the employee's home, including details on domestic help and the availability of family support. Informal checks are conducted, work documents are saved on the intranet to make it accessible for other team members. "We do not look into the system from time to time. We try not to be too anal about the work flow. As long as employees accomplish their targets by end of day, we do not dictate timings," says Deepshikha Dharmaraj, the company's chief officer for growth initiatives.
Beverage company Coca-Cola's offices in India have a similar model. But WFH is a short-term flexibility allowed to employees, wherein one has to agree with his/her manager in terms of the work, the working hours to be put in and the results. Once agreed, the proposal comes to the HR to ensure feasibility. The next stage is enablement. This is driven by IT support - in terms of remote logging in, WFH applications are loaded and the right security accreditations on home computers. "Employees feel more committed when the company is able to provide them the flexibility to accommodate their needs," says Sameer Wadhawan, vice-president, HR and services, Coca-Cola India and South-West Asia.
Measurability has never been an issue at Coca-Cola - whether the executive is working from office or elsewhere.
The company clearly demarcates the key result areas for each one of its employees. Then it has various tracking and review mechanisms - monthly reports and quarterly reports, depending on the nature of work an employee does. "With a close engagement with the manager, review and tracking, one can empower one's employees. If you invest in the process right at the beginning and explain to the employee what you want in terms of deliverables, and that based on this, the employee's performance will be measured, you can easily cut out the ambiguities," adds Wadhawan.
In all this, the supervisor of the employee who is seeking a WFH arrangement plays a pivotal role. "The supervisor should be free of prejudices and the onus lies on him to treat both sets of employees (in-office workers and remote workers) equally," says the HR head of a Top 10 advertising agency. "Each member in the relationship has to be invested really," he sums up.
Recently, Mayer, president and CEO of Yahoo! drew a lot of flak from within the IT industry and outside, particularly from some of Yahoo's 11,500 employees as she revoked the WFH option. The internal memo regarding this, which was leaked by irate employees, has become a hot topic of debate in the last few weeks. "To become the absolute best place to work, communication and collaboration will be important, so we need to be working side-by-side... That is why it is critical that we are all present in our offices," the memo said. By June, all employees, especially those who have been working remotely full-time, are expected to report to a Yahoo! office. Contrary to earlier expectations, corporations like Google and IBM that also offer the WFH option to their employees did not follow suit. But at the same time, it raised a pertinent question: do companies compromise on productivity when they allow employees to work from home?
Before we proceed, a clarification. We understand Mayer is the custodian of Yahoo's health and we respect the fact that she has taken a decision based on hard facts. What we are saying here is, there are a whole host of companies that have made work-from-home work. So if you are a manager considering whether to follow in Yahoo's footsteps remember you could be throwing out the champagne with the cork.
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Need versus want
The trend of remote working was started by Silicon Valley companies like IBM, Google and Yahoo!. And over the last few years, many other companies, including some home-grown ones like Airtel and HCL, have allowed a chunk of their workforce to choose the option of working from remote locations. Indeed, the practice has become so commonplace in markets like the US that people entering the workforce now see it as de rigueur (according to a recent Cisco study). And employers are beginning to see it as an incentive to retain the best people and keep them engaged.
Until, of course, the Mayer memo roiled the waters.
So where does India stand in this debate and was work-from-home a bad idea to start with?
The Strategist spoke to a range of companies across industries and found that while a large chunk of companies do not offer a WFH option to its employees, those that do have put in a lot of effort to design an efficient WFH plan, to put checks in place to track employee output and, at times, customise the option for employees based on their needs and the organisation's requirements. The takeaway is simple: an effective WFH policy means a lot of hard work for the human resources department of a company. It involves a lot of to-and-fro between the HR manager, the supervisor and the WFH employee and requires frequent re-examination. And if you can fix all of this right at the beginning, chances are you won't be looking over your shoulders and will have a greatly engaged workforce.
This also means keeping the people who work from office in the loop. Dhruv Desai, senior vice-president & head, HR and Leadership Academy, Angel Broking, says, "It is one thing to know that such options don't exist for all and it is another to know and see that some staff has such an option. When one set of people enjoys such options it may demoralise the other set and create uncomfortable atmosphere within the workplace." So, as an organisation, the best place to start is to be transparent.
The torch bearers
Take offshore IT services and software development company HCL Technologies, which sees telecommuting as an important part of its inclusive culture. All of its WFH arrangements are worked out through workshops dubbed 'co-creating balance in workplace'. The workshops attempt to understand the scenarios in which an employee seeks the option of telecommuting. The first check is to see if the employee's regular job can be done remotely. While an HR or a marketing executive can avail of this option easily, an employee who is responsible for network security will not be offered the chance to work from home. The latter has the option of changing the job profile if telecommuting is a pressing need for him/her. For example, one can choose to shift to a project that does not involve working on a customer network directly. On the other hand, project managers can work from home as their main job is coordination.
To ensure smooth coordination, you need to have some basic infrastructure. So, besides having a frank and open discussion about the options before the employees, the HR department must work out a check list of the desired home infrastructure, such as internet connectivity, availability of printers, video conferencing etc. Mind you, this is the easier part. What sometimes proves more difficult is dealing with what many experts call the "culture issue".
Sometimes, Indian homes are not conducive to a WFH arrangement. "Mostly Indian homes have too noisy backdrops to allow telecommuting," says Srimathi Shivashankar, AVP, diversity and sustainability, HCL Technologies. "Concepts like home offices are rare in India; and even if you overcome this by explaining the facilities the employee needs to put up, Indian families have difficulty coping with people who work from home. If you are seen in the house during the day, family members assume you are jobless; in short, available," she says. Here, it is up to the individual employee to work it out with his/her family members.
The facilities that an employer needs to offer - or an employee needs to put up - are a function of the deliverables. At e-commerce firm Yebhi.com, while employees have their deliverables defined right at the outset, there are in-house apps specific to roles that have been created to provide a virtual connect between peers, supervisors and customers, says Nikhil Rungta, the company's chief business officer. Such connectivity is important if the supervisor is to effectively mentor his subordinate and get the most out of him/her.
Jyorden T Mishra, founding member and MD of executive search consulting firm Spearhead InterSearch, points out that companies run the risk of losing productive employees if there is a problem in communication.
"A structured communication policy is crucial for smooth functioning. Collective output comes down when there's no one-on-one interaction. Also, employees lose out on the benefits of mentorship," he adds.
At public relations firm Genesis Burson-Marsteller, employees seeking to work from home are allowed to do so three days a week. They must come to office twice a week to discuss weekly deliverables with their supervisors. This is followed by a session to understand the available support system at the employee's home, including details on domestic help and the availability of family support. Informal checks are conducted, work documents are saved on the intranet to make it accessible for other team members. "We do not look into the system from time to time. We try not to be too anal about the work flow. As long as employees accomplish their targets by end of day, we do not dictate timings," says Deepshikha Dharmaraj, the company's chief officer for growth initiatives.
Beverage company Coca-Cola's offices in India have a similar model. But WFH is a short-term flexibility allowed to employees, wherein one has to agree with his/her manager in terms of the work, the working hours to be put in and the results. Once agreed, the proposal comes to the HR to ensure feasibility. The next stage is enablement. This is driven by IT support - in terms of remote logging in, WFH applications are loaded and the right security accreditations on home computers. "Employees feel more committed when the company is able to provide them the flexibility to accommodate their needs," says Sameer Wadhawan, vice-president, HR and services, Coca-Cola India and South-West Asia.
Measurability has never been an issue at Coca-Cola - whether the executive is working from office or elsewhere.
The company clearly demarcates the key result areas for each one of its employees. Then it has various tracking and review mechanisms - monthly reports and quarterly reports, depending on the nature of work an employee does. "With a close engagement with the manager, review and tracking, one can empower one's employees. If you invest in the process right at the beginning and explain to the employee what you want in terms of deliverables, and that based on this, the employee's performance will be measured, you can easily cut out the ambiguities," adds Wadhawan.
In all this, the supervisor of the employee who is seeking a WFH arrangement plays a pivotal role. "The supervisor should be free of prejudices and the onus lies on him to treat both sets of employees (in-office workers and remote workers) equally," says the HR head of a Top 10 advertising agency. "Each member in the relationship has to be invested really," he sums up.