future of work - shrm

Future of Work

Trends at Work and Workplace2019

Executive Summary 3

Key Findings 4

Emerging Trends in Workforce Management 5

Impact on Productivity, Compliance and Costs 9

Role of Technology 14

Future Forward 17

Leadership Insights 19

Respondent Demographics 22

FUTURE OF WORK: TRENDS AT WORK & WORKPLACE | 2019 2

Contents

The organizational ecosystem across the globe is experiencing a massive and

expeditious change, primarily fueled by disruptive technology advancements. Never

before has the construct of how the workforce engages and even contracts with the

firm been so invigoratingly redefined, as new employment models as well as work

behaviors increasingly and swiftly finding credence. While the workspace continues

to evolve and adapt to the fair degree of ambiguity about the future, needless to say,

the possibilities and opportunities are infinite and equally promising.

The Future of Work study 2019 purports to identify the leading elements impacting

workforce in India, and its immediate implications for organizations. It specifically

delves into workforce productivity, compliance and cost aspects being shaped by the

emerging trends, and how workforce planning and management will continue to play

a crucial role in the foreseeable future. In addition to focusing on the current workforce

trends transcending industry, sector, organizational size, strength, composition or

location, the study explores possible headwinds and tailwinds pertaining to workforce

and work management relevant to organizations, and dictating their continued

capability and competitiveness on business delivery.

Executive Summary


organizations are trackingemployee ABSENTEEISM25%Only

5%Effective workforce management canENHANCE productivity,INCREASE compliance andREDUCE costs, by at least

FUTURE OF WORK: TRENDS AT WORK & WORKPLACE | 2019

Key Findings

4

Effective workforce management can enhance productivity, increase compliance and reduce costs by at least 5%, as per more than 90% of respondents. More than half estimate the accruing benefits can be 15% or higher.

Workforce planning and scheduling is a key priority for organizations over the next 6-12 months.

Flexible working hours, freelancing/ contract/ gig employment and remote working are the top emerging trends significantly impacting working planning and management.

Freelancing/ contract/ gig employment is inducing a renewed focus on policies and processes.

Flexible working hours and automation/robotics are resulting in manpower sourcing to be a key consideration for HR in the immediate future.

Employee absenteeism is a critical inhibitor in achieving productivity and cost dimensions, but measured and tracked only at 1 out of every 4 organizations.

Emerging workforce trends are leading to increased productivity and reduced compliance risks. The additional complexity and administration are increasing workforce costs.

There is scope for further automating planning and efficiency activities in workforce management.

Increased automation in workforce management will positively impact employee perception of fairness and equity, as per 82% respondents.

17% of organizations are expending additional manual efforts despite managing workforce requirements through technology solutions.


Emerging Trends in Workforce Management


“…the nature of job has changed over a period of time. Requirement of people for 8 hours doesn’t exist. So, here in Tata Steel we have planned to convert these workers as gig workers.., we are piloting right now… we are preparing a new mindset, which is familiar with what is gig and what is digital world, so that in future when we have to switch to a different kind of work, workplace, we already have a prepared workforce with us...”

SURESH DUTT TRIPATHITata Steel

The workforce of today is diverse and continues to be

accentuated by generations, cultures, skill sets, expectations

and motivations. Rapid evolution of technology is also directly

and indirectly disprupting the workplace, and significantly

Emerging Trendsimpacting workforce planning and management

Flexible working hours

65% Automation/ Robotics

38%

Freelancing/contract/gig employment50% Co-sharing

workspace35%

Remote working40% Part-timeworking

27%

Enabling technologies (e.g. BYOD)

39% Continuity of business

27%

Evolving job roles

39% Shorter business cycles

20%

(% of respondents)

influencing work dynamics. However, superseding

all of these factors and driving the future of work

is the quintessential human element. Irrespective

of persistent technological advancements and

enchanced deployment of robots, the future of work

continues to be anthropocentric for the foreseeable

distant future.

The Future of Work study 2019 reveals that

flexible working hours and freelancing/ contract/

gig employment are the top emerging trends

impacting workforce planning and management

in organizations. This trend is being unanimously

witnessed across manufacturing and services sectors,

organizations of all sizes and irrespective of domestic

and global scale. 85% of the study organizations

engage contract staff (comprising at least 10% of its

workforce), and the significance of these aforesaid

trends become more pronounced as the proportion

of contract workforce increases. Study results indicate

that remote working, evolving job roles, enabling

technologies, and automation/ robotics are the

other key emerging trends significantly impacting

workforce planning and management.


“…where there is a dearth of

talent, of skills, organizations

are ready to experiment.

Automation, digitization -

wherein skills are very scarce, and

people don’t want to be tied to

your organization, consultants,

freelancers are coming into

play for organizations to get a

jumpstart”

KSHITIJ KASHYAP

Optum Global

Accordingly, workforce planning and scheduling

is assuming a higher priority for Human Resources

(HR) function across organizations. The numerous

possibilities of how and when workforce is employed

as well as engaged, are presenting almost unheard-

of opportunities for organizations to be agile and

achieve business outcomes in the most effective and

efficient manner. However, this needs to be critically

reviewed from the perspective of fast-changing

labour regulations as well as employee engagement

guidelines. For example, while the organization as

well as the workforce are increasingly embracing

freelancing/contract/ gig employment construct,

this demands a significant overhaul in organizational

policies and processes, and for it to be adapted for a

flexible workforce arrangement. This is a priority even

for organizations which already deploy contract staff,

as they endeavor to achieve increased efficiencies

and higher workforce optimization. Similarly, flexible

working hours, automation/ robotics and other

emerging trends are redefining the nuances of and

resulting in sourcing to be a key priority for HR

function in immediate future.

7

WORKFORCE PLANNING

and SCHEDULING will be a key

priority for HR function over the

next 6-12 months

organizations engage CONTRACT staff,

85%comprising at least10% of its workforce


“...Automation is one part… people no

longer want 8 hours a day 48 hours a

week, long term jobs; They want to do

three things in a week... And companies

need to be able to work with flexible

workforces, which can be a win win...

Companies are already doing it today.

But I think that will increase.”

RAJ NARAYAN

Titan

8

While the aforesaid emerging trends seem beneficial

for organizations, they also create an urgent imperative

to review and build effective people practices for

enhancing productivity, minimizing compliance risks

and managing workforce costs.

Impact of Emerging Trends on HR function over the next 6-12 months(% of respondents)

Impact on Workforce Planning and Scheduling

57%Freelancing/contract/gig employment

48%

45%

53%

48%

49%

45%


Part time working

Remote working

Automation and robotics

Continuity of business

Co-sharing workspace



Freelancing/contract/gig employment


Remote working

Part time working


64%

39%

32%

45%

38%

44%

38%

Impact on Policies and Processes

46%Automation and robotics

41%

38%

45%

39%

42%

38%



Freelancing/contract/gig


Part time working

Remote working

Impact on Sourcing


Part time working

Remote working





33%

29%

24%

32%

28%

32%

27%

Impact on Employee Engagement


Impact on Productivity, Compliance and Costs


Productivity

10

Productivity Metricscurrent usage in organizations

(% of respondents)

65%

Individual accomplishment of targets and goals

63%

Ratio of employee cost to revenue /profit generated

60%

Ratio of tasks completed per unit of time

47%

Billable hours per employee

Adherence to time deadlines for tasks assigned44%

Spans of control and managerial layers42%

Unplanned absenteeism

25%

Irrespective of industry, employee absenteeism

continues to be the crucial hindering factor in

organizational efforts towards achieving further

improvements in workforce productivity. The

contributing factors in particular rank order are as

follows:

1. Employee absenteeism

2. Inaccurate manpower planning and

deployment

3. Lack of employee training

4. Collective bargaining/union agreements

5. Lack of processes

99% of the surveyed organizations indicated they

tracked at least one of the seven traditional measures

of workforce productivity. Individual accomplishment

of targets and goals continues to be the topmost

metric, closely followed by ratio of employee costs

to revenue/ profit generated and ratio of tasks

completed per unit of time. Employee absenteeism

is a surprising and distant last in productivity

metrics usage – tracked by only one in every four

organizations. On this specific metric, the story is

marginally better for organizations in services sector

compared to those in manufacturing.

Top Productivity Metrics

Accomplishment of individual target and goals

Ratio of employee cost to revenue/profit generated

Ratio of tasks completed per unit time

Employee

ABSENTEEISMis tracked at only

25%organizations


Top Compliance Metrics

Employee completion of periodic trainings

Engagement survey feedback

Employee investigations/escalations

Compliance

11

Engagement survey feedback

53% Client/customer complaints

46%

Policy & process violations

45% Audit findings37%

Regulatory fines and penalties

33% Involuntaryterminations

30%

Compliace training completions71% Employee escalations/

investigations57%

Compliance Metricscurrent usage in organizations

(% of respondents)

The study reveals organizations are extensively

relying on employee completion of periodic

trainings towards tracking and measuring workforce

compliance. The increased focus on whistleblower

policies and grievance mechanism to report

wrongdoings is leading to organizations closely

tracking employee escalations and investigations,

followed by engagement survey feedback, towards

minimizing compliance risks.

Analysis of survey data indicates organizations

are primarily being hindered by a lack of clarity

on requirements in their efforts towards increasing

workforce compliance. This is more acute in

manufacturing organizations vis-à-vis services sector,

while latter organizations are almost equally troubled

by policy enforcements. Delays in policy formulation

and approval also present a significant deterrence in

fulfilling this critical organizational priority. Complete

list of contributing factors in rank order as follows:

1. Lack of clarity on compliance requirements

2. Delays in policy formulation/approval

3. Policy enforcements

4. Lack of employee awareness and training

5. Lack of periodic employee refreshers


Costs

12

Organizations are closely tracking direct and indirect

manpower costs apart from technology expenses

and time to productivity. Despite its significant

impact and criticality, employee absenteeism and

its associated costs are being tracked at less than

30% of participant organizations. The proportion of

respondent organizations measuring absenteeism

is higher in services sector (31%) compared to

manufacturing sector (26%). This is critical in the

Indian context, given the single largest cost of

doing business in the subcontinent continues to

be workforce associated expenses. The situation

is further aggravated by lack of absenteeism as a

productivity measure and it being tracked in only

one of every four organizations.

Top Cost Metrics

Manpower: Direct and Indirect

Technology

Time-to-productivity

Key factors influencing workforce expenses in organizations

include (in rank order):

1. Skill demand vs supply

2. Ineffective/inefficient processes

3. Lack of focus/measures on productivity

4. Collective bargaining/union agreements

5. Regulatory guidelines (e.g. minimum wages)

“Workforce costs can be

reduced through better

workforce management... The

cost arbitrage can come down

by at least 3% in payroll costs,

depending upon the size of the

organization and the geography.

It is substantial, and we have

actually proved it.”

MARCEL PARKER

Quess Corp


Overall Impact

13

positivity towards the emerging trends contributing

towards enhancing workforce productivity and

minimizing compliance risks. The organizations are

more certain of enabling technologies such as Bring

Your Own Device (BYOD), automation/robotics

and flexible working hours leading this change

momentum, but remain skeptical on freelancing/

contract/ gig employment, part-time and remote

working. However, the landscape is expected to

undergo a massive transformation in the near

future as policies and processes get defined and

implemented, providing on-ground clarity and

increased transparency for both management as well

as the workforce. Also, the organizational flexibility

and agility ushered in by the emerging trends

(especially freelancing/ contract/ gig employment,

automation/ robotics, evolving job roles and

enabling technologies) is expected to result in

higher workforce costs emerging from complex

program management and people administration.

This should not become a deterrent in organizations

shying away from adopting the practices for two

primary reasons. First, the value accrued to the

organization in terms of business effectiveness,

opportunities and outcomes far outweighs any such

increase in workforce availability and administration

costs. Second, organizations can no longer afford to

Effective WORKFORCE

MANAGEMENT can

ENHANCE productivity,

INCREASE compliance,

REDUCE costs,by at least

5%

Almost all of respondent organizations participating

in the Future of Work study 2019 supported that

effective workforce management can enhance

productivity, increase compliance and reduce costs.

90%+ respondent organizations outlined such impact

could be at least 5%, while more than 50% estimate

the accruing benefits can be 15% and higher.

The survey results also reveal an overwhelming

Impact of Emerging Trendson organizational productivity, compliance and costs

(% of respondents impacted by the particular emerging trends)

Increase in PRODUCTIVITY

Enabling technologies (e.g. BYOD)

78%

Continuity ofbusiness

74%

Flexibleworking hours

74%

Increase in COMPLIANCE


71%

Enabling technologies(e.g. BYOD)

70%

Automation/Robotics

68%

Increase in COSTS

Evolvingjob roles

60%

Enabling technologies(e.g. BYOD)

60%

Shorterbusiness cycle

59%

adopt a wait-and-watch approach given the shorter business

cycles, critical talent and skills availability, and disruptive and

dynamic markets.


Role of Technology


Workforce Solutions

15

Workforce Management Solutions (WFMS) can play a crucial role in (a) managing workforce

complexity effectively and efficiently, (b) enabling business delivery through accurate workforce

planning, deployment and forecasting, and (c) offsetting increased administration and people-

intensive planning costs with sound and timely decision-making. Though the needle has progressively

moved towards integrated and cloud WFMS, and other technology advancements in the space; it is

surprising to note that 17% of respondent organizations still have to expend additional manual efforts

over and above the technology solution. Emerging workforce trends such as continuity of business,

part-time working, co-sharing workspace and evolving job roles have limited support in WFMS and

may pose a hurdle in business delivery and growth for large organizations (5,000 employees and

more) if not addressed quickly.

Emerging Trends supported by current Workforce Solutions

(% of respondents)

Flexibleworking hours

71%


51%

Remoteworking

49%

Automation/robotics

41%

Part-time working(days per week)

38%

Evolvingjob roles

36%

Co-sharingworkspace

36%

Part-time working (hours per day)

32%


28%


Increased Automation

16

Scope for future Automation

24 x 7 operations staffing

Manpower forecasting

Incentive computations

Skill-based allocation

respondents support increased AUTOMATION in workforce management will POSITIVELY impact employee perception of FAIRNESS and EQUITY

82%

Participant respondents identified definite scope for

further automating planning and efficiency activities

in workforce management such as manpower

forecasting, 24x7 operations, skill-based allocation and

incentive computations. Numerous research studies

have outlined probable biases in administration of

shift assignments, holiday schedules, beat/ machine

allocation, especially those resulting in any rewards

or incentive payouts. Replacing such managerial

duties and responsibilities with automation may not

only result in more effective and efficient decision-

making, but also remove any unwarranted biases,

whether deliberate or unintended. This was also

reiterated by participant organizations, wherein 82%

of respondents affirmed that increased automation

in such workforce management activities will

positively or somewhat positively impact employee

perception of fairness and equity. This has strong

and far-reaching implications for the organization

as employee perception of fairness has a significant

effect on employee morale, productivity, trusted

environment, and culture. If left unaddressed,

any lingering concerns may result in disengaged

workforce and voluntary employee attrition.


Future Forward


Emerging workforce trends and the imperative to be

business-friendly are powering efforts in the country

to revamp the archaic labour framework. Fixed-term

employment contract has already been perceived as

a positive step in this direction. As the government

unveils further labour reforms through simplified

codes, and mulls over new legislations, the pace and

effectiveness of implementing such bills and other

labour statutes is key and will critically determine its

impact on permanent vs contract vs gig workforce.

Organizations may also look forward to leveraging

more of automation and technology-enabled

solutions in the near future. Recent years have

witnessed organizations distancing themselves from

in-house technology platforms and relying more on

buy-vs-build efforts. Rightfully so, this retains the

organizational focus on business delivery and offers

the flexibility to use latest plug-and-play workforce

management solutions without having to worry

about the impact of regulatory changes, technology

getting outdated or maintenance.

Such additional complexity induced from workforce

flexibility will result in higher administration and

oversight costs. Organizations need to be prepared

for the higher spend, with the knowledge that such

costs may partly be offset by higher productivity and

reduced compliance risks associated with the new-

age workforce. This also requires a distinct change

in organizational perspective and shift of paradigm

from employee lifecycle management to overall

workforce focus. All of these together will retool the

organization and enable it to be forward looking,

aligned with the Future of Work.

Technology is expected to continue to be a disruptive force,

impacting workforce and workforce management solutions

alike at an unrelenting pace. The study respondents

anticipate technology tailwinds to only grow stronger over

time, and define new and unforeseen workforce paradigms

in skills demand and availability, as well as global talent

mobility. The talent shortage is glaringly evident in digital

skills especially artificial intelligence and big data, and the

pundits are already apprehensive of technology growth

and progress slowing down in the coming years due to this

shortfall.

“…the government is trying to change the labour laws, keeping pace with the kind of organizations are moving or the demands of the workforce, it is more forward looking But I think we have yet to catch up with the ground, because we are not yet there.”

SANDEEP GAUTAMSpencer

Additional factors shapingWorkforce of the future

Robotics and technology advancements

Global talent mobility

Skill demand/ availability

Labourreforms

Generational attributes


Leadership Insights


BISAKHA PRASADEY GDS

“Workforce planning and management is getting impacted by a combination of part-time working, remote working, co-sharing, BYOD, etc. We have also found [gig employment] to be cost effective.”

DR. C JAYAKUMARL&T Constructions

“The focus in our company is to enable a high-performance work culture. We hope to do so by prioritizing talent acquisition and bringing about a learning culture. Technology plays a major role in both areas.”

ARNABI MARJITLupin

“The pharma space is one of the most regulated. So, productivity management through various technological advancements is a business requirement. We cannot survive if we don’t leverage automation.”

KSHITIJ KASHYAPOptum

“As far as productivity is concerned, the old measure of the hard-working Indian is changing. People don’t like to spend that much time at work anymore.”

SACHIN MATHURPenna Cement

“Productivity in the Indian context is very different... Productivity with technology has to be understood keeping in mind the productivity parameters available within the industry.”

20

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DR. SURESH KUMARAurobindo Pharma

“To me the right way to bring in technology is to introduce sensible automation. We need to supplement human efforts to those challenges that cannot be managed by employees/human resource functions.”

EKTA SINGHCapgemini

“...technology will help streamline processes and improve the quality of work, but will not replace humans. Only thing is that people will have to be reskilled... Jobs are available, but quality people are scarce.”

MARCEL PARKERQuess Corp

“The two things are the emergence of the gig economy and how the patterns are changing in management of millennials. Technology is enabling productivity, but it would be difficult to have one measure.”


SURESH DUTT TRIPATHITata Steel

“The number of manual interventions using automation, mechanization, robotics and everything else are bringing in more efficiency, higher productivity and replacing humans... leading to evolving job roles.”

RAJ NARAYANTitan Industries

“The pressure of staying ahead will keep going up because technology will ensure that innovations get quickly replicated and at a lower cost. Workforce planning will become more effective.”

DEEPAK MISHRAUnited Breweries

“Availability of manpower, and building up the numbers, which can help deliver those business goals is important. So key trend is more flexibility versus fit.”

21

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ANUJ KATHURIAReliance Industries

“Technology is helping the workforce do transactional work with more collaboration (through digitization) - leading to gains in productivity, effectiveness and efficiency.”

SANDEEP GAUTAMSpencer’s Retail

“Technology has really changed the landscape of the retail sector and it has been a boon for our company... is definitely a factor in enhancing productivity. The accuracy and effectiveness are greatly increased.”


Respondent Demographics


Response towards the Future of Work study 2019 was

solicited from CHROs and HR Heads of relevant functions

of target organizations through online survey comprising

primarily of single/multiple choice and rank order questions.

The respondents were provided with an opportunity to add

views and comments in case the response choices did not

adequately capture their reality. Limits were incorporated

in survey tool to ensure balanced mix of respondents by

organizational sector and size.

221 completed responses were utilized for final analysis and

report of study findings. The respondents represent a diverse

mix of organizations across auto and ancillaries, BFSI, FMCG,

hospitality, IT/ITES, manufacturing, pharma, retail, services,

and transport & logistics with overall distribution of 54% and

46% in manufacturing and services industries respectively.

The figures indicated in this report reflect the percentage of

respondents opting for the particular answer choice, unless

categorically stated otherwise.

Additionally, responses were collected from 13 CHROs and

HR Heads through in-person interviews. These conversations

were open-ended and structured for the respondent to

elaborate with qualitative and progressive information on

their workforce management practices.

23

Disclaimer: The information contained herein has been obtained from sources believed to be credible. The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and Kronos disclaim all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information, and will hence bear no liability for errors, omissions or inadequacies in the information contained herein or for interpretations thereof.

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24


TRENDS IN WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT

One of the trends we are seeing is the digitization of workforce planning systems across all sectors. So, we need to use the appropriate technology. We also need to find new ways of organizing the data management system to get synergistic benefits of both technology as well as the expected outcomes of the particular technology. Technology should be an enabler which allows the HR and line managers to deploy personnel in a way to ensure good delivery and high productivity.

Digitization or greater compliance levels also take up your cost. In our experience, digitization can optimize the cost, because the chances of a non-compliance are reduced to the minimum, and the cost of such non- compliance has proved to be disastrous for organizations. So, the cost of this digitization cannot be comparable to the benefits of automation in the system.

We consider our employees as the knowledge workforce. The pharma industry being science-based, we have to recruit people with adequate pedigree. Their engagement starts from the pre-recruitment and onboarding stage itself.

LABOR REFORMS

Labor reforms are mutually beneficial to the workers and management. When management implements labor policies it is seen to be fair and progressive, and the shop floor workers feel that it is the right place to work in.

BENEFITS OF AUTOMATION

To me the right way to bring in technology is to introduce sensible automation. We need to supplement human efforts to those challenges that cannot be managed by employees/human resource functions. Here management reaps a two-fold benefit. There is the advantage of automation on one hand, and on the other, it gives a strong message to employees that management believes in appropriate automation and will upgrade the skills of its employees to enable them to work with new technology.

So, the first is digital - how do we further leverage technology? The second is that the organization has a rich legacy of hundred plus years and how do we make sure that the stability doesn’t come in the way of our being agile? And the third aspect is innovation. We’re looking at innovation in a big way, because ours is an industry which doesn’t see much of technological change. But if we have to disrupt, we have to look at innovation.

DR. SURESH KUMARAurobindo Pharma

RETURN TO LEADERSHIP INSIGHTS


FUTURE TREND IN EMPLOYMENT

As HR professionals, the one big change we have had to deal with is the definition of long-term service. Unlike people in the earlier generations joining an organization and retiring from it, the millennials don’t have the same long-term perspective. So, that is the first thing HR professionals have to come to terms with, and it becomes a massive challenge for those involved in hiring and tracking retention. Millennials want to work on something that is fast-paced, for which they can see results instantly. It has affected the way we attract talent in the marketplace – we look at aptitude and cognitive intelligence, but not whether employees will stay on beyond the completion of a project. In the US, UK and European markets, things have completely changed – the concept of being a full-time employee no longer exists. The intellectual power is with the IT industry so naturally this is where a lot of experiments are happening. Social platforms give job offers for ideas that are developed into products after which one is free to take on the next offer. This practice will soon come to India as well but we may not be ready for it. From an organization or industry standpoint, we need to align our thoughts and processes to the new type of employment where employees may not want to work full time.

IMPACT IN TECHNOLOGY

However, it does not mean that people are losing jobs, because technology provides perfection and accuracy, but the real intelligence lies with humans. So, technology will help streamline processes and improve the quality of work, but will not replace humans. Only thing is that people will have to be reskilled. Artificial intelligence does not exist on its own, a human has to write that intelligence for the robot to work and function.

Unemployment is not on the rise, what is rising is the lack of quality people graduating from various educational institutes. Jobs are available, but quality people are scarce. Organizations are no longer only hiring for technical skills but also on the basis of the candidate’s learning ability. So, if you were not a learner as a child, your employability will not improve much after higher education.

LABOR REFORMS

We need labor reforms in the areas of part-time employment, contractual employment, job sharing, etc. These reforms will help to implement these alien concepts in the Indian work culture, that as of now only considers full-time employment. Seems we are paying salaries for the time spent at work, and not for a job done. HR professionals can help employees understand their jobs better by simplifying things and improving communication.

EKTA SINGHCapgemini




Workforce planning and management is getting impacted by a combination of part-time working, remote working, co-sharing, BYOD, etc. Our company has made inroads in the gig economy space given we want to tap in to multiple talent pools in the IT/ITES sector. We have also found it to be cost effective, and enabling us to add value to our clients without compromising on quality. We offer flexibility at work both in term of days and location, with additional vacation days if necessary – because we feel that well-rested employees and a well-integrated work life balance brings about highest productivity. The millennials, comprising 83-85% of our workforce, take to this flexibility as they can choose the projects that interest them and then take off backpacking atother times. The gig economy helps us tap into otherwise inaccessible talent pools like young mothers who have mobility issues,and retired personnel who only want to work a few hours. It brings diversity in thought and experience. So, we leverage variouscombinations to help us deal with the peaks and valleys in production and delivery.

WORKFORCE PLANNING IN EY

We are now working on an integrated workforce model to maintain our productivity record. We have 5 client services (or business verticals), a couple of which we can cross-leverage for skills, and whose busy periods don’t overlap. Therefore, when we hire, we make it a point to hire for overall EY Global Delivery Service, and not for specific business vertical. When work comes in, we look at our dashboards and analytics to assign suitable people for projects. So, recruitment is our most important function – we hire almost a mini organization every other quarter!

We have managed a 18-20% growth because of good planning by the leaders. We continue to have great business coming our way because of two critical stakeholders at the forefront - the customer and the employee (our internal customer). Everything else is worked around these two.

IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY

Jobs that are formula driven, statute driven and not very dynamic are becoming automated. As a residual effect, the niche/skilled jobs will become more relevant. It will force people to focus on skills they have to develop for today’s work environment – if you have general logic, great communication and are able to interpret documents, you have a job. In the future, one will have to be a specialist to be relevant to an organization. We see a huge window of opportunity because the way the gig economy is evolving, it allows the earning potential to multiply – with good time management, relevant documentation and smart contracts.

BISAKHA PRASADEY GDS




Though L&T Constructions is an 80 years old company, the average age of our employees is 29 years. Most of them are millennials. However, emerging workforce concepts such as work-from-home are not relevant to the construction industry because it is a “here and now business”. Having said that, we are taking measures to improve the performance and productivity of our people.

The foremost trend impacting workforce planning and management is digitization which the company has brought about in areas like talent acquisition, performance management and learning and development. Our company also uses geo-fencing for marking attendance in some of the project sites so that the worker’s attendance gets marked as soon as he/she enters the work area. For safety in hazardous zones, an RFID has been fixed in the helmets. This monitors hazardous areas and tags workers not wearing helmets, thus promoting safety and increasing productivity.

FOCUS AREAS IN THE FUTURE

The focus in our company is to enable a high-performance work culture. We hope to do so by firstly prioritizing talent acquisition – getting the right talent, especially leadership talent. And secondly, bringing about a learning culture where continuous upgradation of skill, knowledge and people is taking place. And technology plays a major role in both these areas. So, technology and skill demand are the top two drivers for us in the next four to five years.

IMPEDIMENTS TO WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT

Attracting skilled and qualified personnel to work for a construction company is the biggest challenge - they are either not available as in the case of workmen level employees, or would rather work for a software company as in the case of a software developer. In addition, due to the seasonal and casual nature of labor it is difficult to track the workers making workforce management very difficult. We have had to resort to uberization of workforce management, tracking workers through their Aadhar cards on an app.

THE ASK GOING FORWARD

Going forward, the way engineers use technology on the job will differentiate us from other construction companies - which is why we are bringing in digitization and analytics into all our operations.

At this point there are too many diverse systems that need to be integrated. We are also looking for something that will integrate with our present system of punching in – something that automatically marks attendance through facial recognition on entering the premises, or through biometrics (thumb impression).

DR. C JAYAKUMARL&T CONSTRUCTIONS




Diversity and inclusion used to be a fad in the last maybe five to six years. But currently, it’s more a business imperative. It’s no longer a nice thing to have, but become mandatory at most organizations, along with managing post millennials going forward. Inclusion will be big - we’re going to get more out of it. It’s going to be more to do with the actual value that this whole proposition brings to the table for companies. Extraordinary amount of time and efforts is going to be put in to try and understand the psyche and service the millennials and post millennials better. They are coming in into the industry and they want to be here to stay.

AI is going to come in big time, and we’re all going to be more adaptive to technology than maybe we were in last few years. And it is not going to only impact the high-tech companies, it’s going to impact across the baseline.

ROLE OF TECHNOLOGY

Technology is a major disrupter. The amount of technology we use is so immersive that when you get to the workplace, if you do not have a very tacky environment, you lose out in the bargain. The pharma space is one of the most regulated. So, productivity management through various technological advancements is a business requirement. We cannot survive if we don’t leverage automation, as human error is very expensive in our business. And working with the so-called brown-collared, as well as blue-collared workforce in an automated environment is a challenge. We have beautifully married the two in our industry. From the time the raw materials are picked up from the store to the output, everything is tracked online real time, because of which the chances of any human error, intentional or unintentional, have been completely prevented. Especially for not-so-qualified workforce, we have started using VR in a big way. The USDA regulations mandate certain man-hours of training before deployment on the line. If you directly try in commercial line, it’s very expensive as well as cumbersome from administrative logistics perspective. So, we now first start off with VR and then quickly transition to the shop floor. And that’s crashed our induction time, on both time and cost.

LABOR REFORMS

Labor reforms are much needed, and needs to be more corporate friendly. And when I say corporate friendly, I’m not necessarily saying that it goes against the employees, but right now it is so laborious and so archaic, while the world has moved on. Contractual employment is cumbersome and has a lot of loopholes for corruption to seep in. And in today’s day and age, there has to be flexibility in workforce for economic cycle not to be a straight line. And flexibility should be allowed to be handled without so much of intervention by the authorities.

ARNABI MARJITLUPIN LIMITED




Workforce management in the past was largely organization led. There is a clear shift nowadays to it being employee led. The organization can choose the skills it wants from the continuum of permanent employees, contract staff, freelancers, crowdsourcing and gig workers. The experiments with workforce management is mostly happening in the startup space because they don’t have anything to lose. Where there is a dearth of skills or talent, they are ready to experiment. Companies are using the services of consultants and freelancers to get a jumpstart in the areas of RPA (Robotic Process Automation), automation, digitization - where skills are scarce, and people don’t want to be tied down to one organization. It is a case of demand and supply – if you don’t have the supply you would want to look at alternate sources to manage your workforce. The implications are huge for organizations that are getting into the gig economy. Protecting IP, continuity of work for those dependent on freelancers are some issues they may face. Compliance with labor laws would be an issue for HR because they are not part of your permanent staff, so ensuring that policies and procedures are catering to what the law expects becomes difficult. It would not be easy to engage with these resources as they are available to everyone, even competition. So, if your internal culture or ecosystem is not moving the way they want, they can leave. NDAs would not be enough to take care of the problem completely.


Disruptive technology is improving productivity but also causing stress. It has given us access to information, brought people closer, caused thinning of geographical boundaries, etc. However, it has also intruded upon our personal life. This intrusion has led to productivity going down. So now organizations have to look at employee wellbeing as a necessity and not just an engagement activity. As far as productivity is concerned, the old measure of the hard-working Indian is changing. People don’t like to spend that much time at work anymore. However, we do have the advantage of the youngest workforce in the world, which organizations worldwide are recognizing as a huge potential. There is a paradigm shift taking place – people doing bottom of the pyramid work are moving to the middle and the upper layers. However, this will take time. Human capital is complex and companies across the world are struggling with the problem of how to bring all the HR systems together. If an employee was given a one-stop shop where he/she could get all the information about demographics, pay statements, learning, etc. all in one package, it would really enhance employee experience. So what HR needs is an integrated platform that has a single employee interface which enhances the employee experience - just like the banking industry evolution that created trust and improved the customer journey through the use of technology.

KSHITIJ KASHYAPOPTUM




Cement manufacturing process has evolved over time. We are looking for high-end technology which will help us diagnose better and enable employees to use AI to predict possible failure or maintenance scheduling.

For us, automation has brought in positivity and made jobs easier for people. It has brought in transparency, e.g. reimbursement process. And introduction of technology has resulted in reskilling. We have not had to hire new people to fuel our growth. The combination of technology and reskilling existing employees has brought in enhanced productivity. In the past few years, contractual staffing has become big in the cement industry as well. So, training those contractual staff has become very important. Organizations must make sure there is growth when technology is introduced, otherwise may result in job loss.

One of the areas where bringing in technology has improved productivity is sales. Our sales people carry a tablet or mobile with relevant data – how much a dealer has sold since the last visit, what is the outstanding, etc. They are able to have a meaningful conversation around why the dealers cannot sell a certain product, what help is required from the company, etc.

With the introduction of technology costs will come down - for example, if five resources are doing a job, and if I automate that job, I may need just one person to handle that job. So, I can pay him/ her a higher salary, which may equal to two employees’ pay, I still end up saving the cost of three employees’ salaries.

In the coming months, we are looking to explore the gig economy for certain short-term projects.

MEASURING PRODUCTIVITY

For finance, we measure total revenue to total cost. For sales, we look at sales per employee as a as a parameter that how much a person sells. For manufacturing, we look at cost per ton of cement. So, these are the three metrics that we primarily use for productivity improvement, and depending on geography, location, these parameters are tweaked a bit.

However, we are unable to correlate metrics that are inter-departmental in nature – how do we correlate technology across multiple functions?

Productivity in the Indian context is very different from how it is measured elsewhere. For example, a cement factory in the US works with 5-6 people, in India we have 400 people running it. If you want to benchmark and then focus on productivity, then you will have to bring a lot of changes within your organization. Benchmarking would mean you should actually become like that company, whether it is technology, whether it is the product that you have, whether it is the kind of components that you use processes that you have. So, I think productivity with technology has to be understood in the context keeping in mind the productivity parameters available within the industry.

SACHIN MATHURPENNA CEMENT




The two things which come to mind are the emergence of the gig economy and how the patterns are changing in management of millennials. The gig economy attracts a lot of young people. How do you handle these young people with very different aspirations, very different expectations, and with very short-term careers? This era looks at changing jobs every 18 months, acquisition of new skills, and impatience to grow very, very fast. E.g. in a typical outsourced job, say feet-on-the-street salesperson, using apps you’re able to see how many connects, how many of those converted into leads, and how many then converted into business. Technology is enabling productivity, and we can provide these statistics also to the employers to aid in career growth, rewards & incentives, and the people they should be investing in.

Productivity increases are there, but it would be difficult to have one measure for all. However, we have seen selectivity in different industries, that there has been significant cost leveraging or cost arbitrage, which enables me to do more with less. I think that’s the learning that we really have, because some of the jobs that people do are fairly mundane routine tasks.

Workforce costs can be reduced through better workforce management. One is by not having your regular employees do it, but outsourcing the function. The cost arbitrage can come down by at least 3% in payroll costs, depending upon the size of the organization and the geography. It is substantial, and we have actually proved it.

BENEFITS OF AUTOMATION

One is using a mix of blended learning, irrespective of level, because learning is every individual’s responsibility. Employers can only help to a certain extent. Hence blended learning - some classroom, some using technology, and some my own investment.

All workforce management tasks and activities, including shift allocations, skill-based allocations, manpower forecasting, incentive calculations, team or unit assignments, 24x7 operations staffing, festival or holiday staffing leave approval, can be fully automated. Imagine a very ambitious digitization program. May take a little longer. Can meet with some resistance. It also depends on who’s driving it. How much skin do they put in the game? How committed are they to this? And one of the greatest things we’ve done is to empower our younger managers to do this. So that they feel that they are part of the decision-making process and also accountable for results. Of course, some people fail. But, that’s good because that’s the way they learn.

MARCEL PARKERQUESS CORP




We live in a world today where business has been impinged by the fourth industrial revolution which forces you to take a path never created before. The trends I see – firstly, gig is passé. Everyone is an ambassador for your organization, whether permanent employees, contractors or vendors. We are in a borderless economy. Secondly, we have employees who expect consumer grade experience, including things on the go or at the snap of the finger. Thirdly, I find that employees want an experience that is hyper-personalized to them.

However, at the organizational level we are moving away from individual performance management to team-based structures and team-based performance management. We are looking at how teams collaborate and work together. Not only is there a shortage of skills, but the shelf life of a skill is reduced to 3.5-4 years. This means what our children are studying in school now will no longer be relevant when they graduate. People will be working in jobs that don’t exist today.

ROLE OF TECHNOLOGY

In such a situation, technology will play a big role in stitching together the disparate systems. It has to be a confluence of human behavior and technology. We have to treat one and all as our workforce, no matter which business they work for, and if they are permanent employees or not.

I also find there is no common unified platform for employee experience which integrates all the systems for the employee. We in Reliance are working on the HR 2.0 platform which is an attempt to ensure consumer experience is equal to employee experience. It will be a unified experience, a single window platform for all systems. We are living in a world where everything needs to be offered as a service. Over the next couple of quarters, the HR 2.0 platform will get scaled up to the entire organization.

CHANGE IN HR MINDSET

Any disruption presents multiple opportunities. We need to have an ecosystem mindset, and not an isolated platform mindset. Technology is helping the workforce do transactional work with more collaboration (through digitalization) - leading to gains in productivity, effectiveness and efficiency. The conversation is moving from output to outcome. We have to ask what are we trying to solve for and then leverage technology to get the right outcome.

And we need to think in terms of scalability. We need to identify the crux of the problem we are trying to solve and use the Human Centered Design to solve it. The peripherals could be what technology you use, what processes you re engineer, what skill augmentation you use, how you would change the operating models, etc.

ANUJ KATHURIARELIANCE INDUSTRIES



SANDEEP GAUTAMSPENCER’S RETAIL

WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT

We are a workforce intensive organization, retailing though multiple channels. Even in our online retail business, the last mile delivery is done by people, drones are not in use in India yet. This presents diverse kinds of challenges. One of them is sourcing this kind of workforce and creating new channels to hire them from different walks of life. A large number of our hires come to cities from rural areas looking for work. A lot goes into training them as their qualification and confidence levels for sales jobs are found lacking.

The second challenge is in engaging them for the role – retail and specifically food retail involves strenuous, physical work. Since cost is a competitive consideration, we have launched a lot of good practices to train and engage them so that they can in turn engage with our customers. This is definitely helping, but attrition levels are still high, and as a sector itself we have to do more.


Technology has really changed the landscape of the retail sector and it has been a boon for our company. We have launched our new HRMS that provides the employees all data relevant to them, such as leave, expense claims, loans and advances, at their fingertips – the app it provides is very interactive and real-time. Our Learning Management System provides individual training modules that they can take in their own time. With thousands of new products being introduced on a regular basis, the app enables our huge salesforce to be up-to-date on product knowledge. Technology also guides customers and helps them locate products they need in large stores. In the retail market, margins are thin and competition is fierce, which puts pressure on our profit and loss account. We have found that technology is definitely a factor in enhancing productivity. Our Automatic Replenishing System tells us exactly how much we have sold, what is on the shelves, how much is one the way, what orders need to be placed, etc. which we would otherwise have to do manually. So, the accuracy and effectiveness are greatly increased. Our systems are not as advanced as those in the US, but the retail market is maturing and we will find the right model to be more profitable.

LABOR REFORMS

The government is trying to change labor laws, to keep pace with demands of the market and the workforce. Skill India is a good initiative, and the last government gave it an impetus, but the labor laws are yet to catch up with ground realities e.g. women can’t work between 7 pm and 7 am. Since labor is a state subject, we find that few states have given some leeway. If more concessions were given, we could tap into more resources. Students, for instance, could work after classes. Retail can provide a lot of employment.




Tata Steel is a manufacturing organization with a combination of workforce.

And it is getting impacted by technology with data and machines replacing transactions for speed, productivity and efficiency. Earlier, there used to be multiple locations (hot seats) where people had to be there to run and operate. Now, all this can happen remotely and hence, the number of people required to handle multiple machines is reducing. So, the number of manual interventions using automation, mechanization, robotics and everything else are bringing in more efficiency, higher productivity and replacing humans. People may lose this kind of a job because this skill is not needed. But another skill is needed leading to evolving job roles. So, the job remains but the skill changes. And hence the whole focus for us is that how do we reskill these people with the newer skill?

Second, the aspirations of blue-collared workers of yesteryears is very different compared to today. So, we are re-designing and redefining the structure, their comp, future growth and careers.

Ours is a hazardous industry and we need to ensure that people are well-trained before they enter into the organization. So, one set of people who are regulars will continue. We are also looking at offloading or outsourcing some jobs, where we can create centers-of-excellence, who can also provide services and expertise to the external world. We’re looking at a set of people who can be experts in their field and hence their skill may not be regular. So, they are on the rolls of some other organization, some other entity where they’re providing the skill, and we will contribute in making sure that the skill is developed. Also, even in our setup, we find that the nature of job has changed over the period of time. Requirement of people for 8 hours doesn’t exist. So, we have planned to convert them as gig workers. We are trying to see how they can work here and in their free time pick up something which is linked to the gig economy. We are piloting right now and will see what happens over a period of time. First, they will be productively engaged during the day. Second, they will earn out of that. Third, we are preparing a new mindset, which is familiar with what is gig and what is digital world, so that in future when we have to switch to a different kind of workplace, we have already a prepared workforce with us.

AUTOMATION AND FLEXIBILITY

Apart from the demographic, the kind of workers who are coming and their requirements are getting different. The traditional manufacturing jobs are not liked by many people, unless you change the way you work. We’ll have to see how we can allow people to work out of home. We have complete flexible working hours where it is not how many hours in a day, but how many hours in a week. So, employees can log in depending on when certain things are happening. In other areas, you have core timing, you can come anytime and go anytime be there the core time. We did a major change in 2016 when we shifted from six days to five days working.

SURESH DUTT TRIPATHITATA STEEL



MEASURING PRODUCTIVITY

We have very clear norms set for measuring productivity for our outsourced workforce. We hire our security and housekeeping staff on contract, where the contractor hires and manages them. We approve the recruitment and lay down clear work norms. The other group of contractual workforce consists of those selling our products like watches, sunglasses and fragrances, in large format stores like Shoppers Stop, Lifestyle, Central etc. They are trained by us and their productivity is measured by sales, visual merchandising, arrangement of products, etc. We also have ‘karigars’ who are on the rolls of the master contractor who sets up a karigar centre and monitors them as per the productivity norms set by us.

FUTURE TRENDS AFFECTING THE WORKFORCE

In the next 5 years, one of the trends that will come up is that people will no longer want long-term jobs working 8 hours a day, 48 hours a week. They will want to do 3 different things in a week. The companies will need to be able to work with flexible workforces, especially in areas like specialty retail where traffic in the stores is more in the evenings or the weekends. In future such stores will probably have facial recognition which can identify a customer on the second visit so that the salesperson can address him/ her by name. They will probably have a lot more data about the customer available to them which can enhance the quality of the interaction with the customer. But technology is an enabler and cannot replace the special connect that only humans bring.

At the moment the cost of labor in India is not as high as that in Europe or USA, but it will eventually catchup. So, right now replacing labor with automation may not seem to be a priority for organizations. However, it will need to be done keeping in mind the discerning customers who have all the information about products on their fingertips. It doesn’t mean that jobs will go, it will throw up very different sets of jobs, especially in the data science space. Problem solving will become far more cutting edge, decision making will be far more data driven and analysis driven, the speed with which products and services get to the market will be different, product turnaround will be higher and faster. Therefore, the skills that need to be imparted at educational institutions and at work will change. Industry leaders that adopt these changes early will be able to have a competitive advantage. However, the pressure of staying ahead will keep going up because technology will ensure that innovations get quickly replicated and at a lower cost. Workforce planning will become more effective, and rewards will be administered faster without taking away, or maybe even enhancing the human touch.

RAJ NARAYANTITAN INDUSTRIES




The trends that we have seen emerging in the workforce planning are largely linked to business growth or changes. Availability of manpower accordingly, and building up the numbers, which can help you deliver those business goals is important. So key trend is more flexibility versus fit.

ROLE OF TECHNOLOGY

Technology is the key enabler to changes in workforce planning. You need to have a tool or system which can throw data from the past, and can help project the numbers basis that. But it doesn’t end there because you have to run the complete cycle. So, you need to ensure hiring, onboarding, confirmation, transfer, exit – the entire lifecycle management. More than that, we as an organization, are coming to revalue people. People have spent 25 - 30 years when they join and retire from there. So we only see technology as an enabler, and not as a disruptor. Because our goal is always to have people’s buy-in first, to understand that the adoption of technology that we’re trying to bring in is good or not. We also don’t have a fixed mindset that once you’ve got some technology, we cannot do away with that. It’s more of an understanding whether it’s fitting into the situation or not, is it helping us or not, our employees experiencing change with the help of technology or not. And we believe that technology should not become burden on people. And nowadays, if you look at what each and every function has got at least some modules running for themselves. If the technology is such that it makes it very cumbersome to work, it adds to employee frustration, and maybe impact business productivity. So, we see it as more of an emblem.

Technology has a very positive impact in compliance aspects. You have the database available to ensure that in case of any allegations or mis-happenings or for developmental purpose or future growth, you have sufficient transactional database which to base it on. Productivity can be increased if technology doesn’t consume much of my time.

LABOR REFORMS

In the recent past, we have seen a lot of changes happen around the social benefits side of workforce management. In the coming years, government will talk more about areas around social security benefits for the workforce. It is very important for us to capture accurate data about the workforce. E.g. it is our responsibility to ensure that they’re safe and get requisite support in case of any medical exigencies. So, while the government might provide social security, we also have certain data available with us which can be leveraged to support these people.

DEEPAK MISHRAUNITED BREWERIES


future of work - shrm

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