A few weeks ago, we welcomed Infoscions back to the Global Education Center at Mysore, our learning institution, which has acted as a foundation for shaping careers over the last decade. While we had 1000 employees back to the campus, we had another 1000 of them joining us virtually, and we witnessed a hybrid onboarding program par excellence, at the heart of Infosys, ensuring a seamless experience for all our employees. This is what the future is going to look like, where organizations will have to carve out immersive hybrid experiences in the times to come.
The future holds endless possibilities for us, and we are working towards creating a new equilibrium at work – in our offices, homes, co-working spaces, and the hybrid model is being fine-tuned & honed to fit seamlessly. It will transform under the 3 key paradigms – Work, Workforce & Workplace, catering to the 3 employee segments – fully onsite, fully remote and flexi employees.
While we are witnessing a flurry of waves to augment the future of work, the biggest game-changer is going to be the digital transformation that is now compelling organizations to harness the power of the latest and more advanced technologies. The new-age HR professionals will have to act as proponents of not just people, but technology as well, in order to adapt to the fastest evolution this generation has ever witnessed. However, we must remember that technology is only an enabler, a means for us to enhance employee experience in unprecedented ways.
Let’s look at how we can shape the experience for our employees in the hybrid world.
- Equality of Experience: A right balance of high tech & high touch experience will enable HR professionals to create equal touchpoints across the employee life cycle. The experience will have to be inclusive, equal, and enriching. Scalable tech solutions through AI & Machine Learning along with custom-made humanized solutions will act as key propellers in amplifying the Hybrid Work Experience.
- Personalization: Personalization fueled by data will be one of the key differentiators for us. The conventional ‘One-size-fits-all’ approach will grind to a halt in the current times and with multiple talent segments emanating in the hybrid setup, it will be critical for organizations to personalize and create consumer-grade experiences. We will have alternate talent pools, distributed & multi-generational workforce and technology is going to be the most effective enabler in our journey towards Hyperpersonalization.
- Interconnectedness: The connectedness of systems and applications to be able to speak to each other is going to be crucial. I am amazed by the interconnectedness of devices in our lives today where all our information is available on the cloud and if one device stops working, we have other devices to take care of all our data as everything is intertwined.
- Wellbeing: With the changing times, we will have to move from a silo-based approach of creating wellness programs for our users towards creating touchpoints shaping the day in the life of an employee, not just at work, but beyond. Organizations should create a 3-tiered model which can help them navigate their journey of wellness – Self Help to enable them to take charge of their wellness, a Microenvironment for managers & teams’ wellbeing & Macro Environment to nurture an ecosystem where wellbeing takes precedence at an organization level.
- Data: Here, the focus should be on 3Is – Impact, Insights & Intuition. Every organization will have to answer 3 questions when it comes to data – How are we looking at creating impact through data, how are we looking at creating powerful insights to drive behavior, and lastly, how are we making our data more intuitive for the user.
- Understanding tech & beyond: I believe the axis for HR is shifting from understanding people to understanding both people & technology. Our role will revolve around not just harnessing technology but identifying the problems that technology can help solve for people and organizations and then to prioritize the right and the more important problems given the fast-paced nature of work today. Currently, HR is not just on the ship in the deep seas, it is steering into the new horizon. A great opportunity to shape the future!
Lastly, I believe it’s important for us to keep culture at the heart of all that we do, and the focus will be on creating a compelling Hybrid Employee Experience, keeping empathy & care at the core. As Steve Jobs beautifully put it “You’ve got to start with the customer experience and work backward to the technology”
Note: The article draws on various sources of inspiration from the public domain. All views are personal.