Through with the tough times of COVID-19, companies are now building future of workplace which is more flexible. IT, tech, and desk jobs have moved easily to work from home mode, but this has not been the same for blue collar jobs. Tata Steel is now planning to bring the perks of work from home for factory operators and blue-collar employees too.
The company has started pilot projects creating digital twins of their factories to make operations outside from the factories feasible. Currently, Tata Steel is trying the model in Jamshedpur.
Elaborating on the plans, Atrayee Sanyal, Vice President-Human Resource Management, Tata Steel says, “When we talk about digital automation industry 4.0, we are also thinking of digital twins of our factories, as well as our blast furnaces in a manner that the control room is completely out of the plant area – a different zone where people can either come or operate from home. A pilot has already started and much more to come in future.”
While the company is already working on real time AR-VR based learning for the new entrants, it is making a progress in re-skilling and on robotics to help blue-collar jobs move to a flexible work mode.
“Work from should not only be available for people who do desk-oriented jobs, people on other profiles. For this, reskilling and robotics is a big jump and time taking process. We are also doing a lot of work on team building for smooth process,” Sanyal adds.
About 30 per cent of the other white-collar profiles in Tata Steel are working from home or have the flexibility to be location agnostic. The recruitment and onboarding process continues to be online with e-learning courses. However, the company is planning to make onboarding to 50-50 ratio going ahead. Some roles and profiles like that in IT have now completely moved to work from home and have opened the doors for talent across cities.
“At a point during the pandemic, 70-80 percent of the entire white-collar workforce was working online. But our blue-collar workforce had to be in office while people in services and support system went into 100 percent work from home. That was the scale of change when things began. We want 100 percent of our people to be on flexible mode,” says Sanyal.
According to job search portal Indeed, in January 2022, 8.4 percent of the total job postings had remote terms. While, in January 2020 it was below 3 percent. In their recent India Hiring Tracker report for H2 of 2021, Indeed stated that only 7 percent employees had flexibility of working fewer hours for reduced pay while over 77 percent said their workplaces did not have any such option.
“Digital nomads are suddenly more employable if they have the skill and the right ability to communicate for the job; location is no more a constraint. For it companies, it is now not about cost but about employee welfare,” says Sashi Kumar, Head of Sales, Indeed India.
Recently, e-commerce brand Meesho moved to a permanent work from anywhere policy calling it “Boundaryless workplace” with added benefits like company sponsored workations to Goa and Shimla, day-care facilities for children below the age of 6, satellite offices for those choosing to come to offices, and virtual onboarding and boot camps for new joiners.
Major IT companies like TCS and Infosys have already announced their shift to a hybrid work model. Even for return to office, employees will only have to work 2-3 days from office. Rising adoption of flexibility, has brought hope to many for the hybrid model to be a long-term affair.
