Given that the ‘new normal’ will differ greatly from the pre-Covid workplace, what are some of the immediate measures being adopted by employers with regard to employee policies?
What the Covid crisis has done, is change how the workforce is looked at. This is true across the world, irrespective of geography, industry or sector. Earlier, policy formulation was on the basis of the category of worker, i.e. blue collared, white collared, contract workers, etc. However, post Covid, a new categorisation is emerging – based on where the employee is working from. Depending on whether the employee can work remotely or will need to physically be present onsite at the workplace or needs to do a mix of both, strategies and measures will evolve. In the case of remote workers, the focus will be to use technology to the fullest to bridge the gap of reduced physical presence and increase remote interaction. When it comes to frontline workers who need to be at the physical premises, the measures will need to predominantly focus on their health and safety at the workplace. There are a number of guidelines that have been released by the government and various industry bodies in this regard and most of the immediate policy changes that we see will be around implementing these measures in the quickest and most effective manner. Some of these include aspects like flexible working hours, staggered shifts, split shifts, working hour changes that govern when and how people operate in the workplace.
How are companies planning the scheduling process for employees, in light of the various governmental and health and safety codes in place?
Due to the necessity of implementing social distancing at the workplace, staggering how the workforce enters and exits has become critical. Organisations need to space out how employees join shifts and instead of having the entire workforce walk in at 7am for an A shift, we will be looking at a series of shifts where groups of people come in periodic intervals, say 7 am, 7:15, 7:30 and so on. While this sounds simple, it is actually quite complex, because if you don’t plan the teams to arrive at the right times, it could result in groups of people idling while they wait for the entire team to get in place. And of course that impacts productivity immensely. Again with the workforce not fully available to work due to migrant labour shortage and regulatory restrictions, organisations will need to manage shift rotations and weekly offs efficiently as well to ensure that they have the people that they need at the right time. With a reduced number of people at the workplace, managing the right skill mix to deliver the right outcomes is an added complexity. Workforce management solutions can play a critical role in helping organisations plan these staged arrivals and at the same time align labour availability to organisation production plans and skill requirements for the job.
How can technology enable the workforce management transition in the post Covid world?
Technology has already played a remarkable role in empowering remote workers. Almost every organisation has had to enable remote working and video conferencing overnight. For front-line workers a different set of technological solutions are required. Given the complexities and risks around running operations, organisations cannot afford to have planning happening independently and unmonitored at their various locations. Increased amounts of centralised planning will be required to ensure everyone follows the right guidelines.