Remote working may be taking a toll | Economic Times

India Inc plans to adopt a long-term or permanent hybrid working model once offices are open over the next few months as prolonged remote working has started taking a toll on employees through blurring of work-life boundaries and rising fatigue levels.Companies across sectors are working on plans to adopt permanent hybrid working – where employees will go to office some days and work remotely the other days – for 35-60% of their white-collar workforce, shows a survey of 400 companies conducted exclusively for ET by staffing firm Ciel HR Services.“Companies adopting the hybrid model have observed that there was an increase in productivity,” said Aditya Narayan Mishra, CEO of of Ciel HR.IT and IT services companies plan to hot-desk up to 60% of their employees permanently, while those in manufacturing and engineering, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), automobile, pharma and healthcare, banking, financial services and insurance, and so on may introduce the model for 35-45% their office workforce, the survey showed.84454621Companies will adopt hybrid working in a big way for functions such as IT, finance, sales, procurement, human resources and administration, it said.While top companies said there is no rush to return to offices especially after the havoc created by the second wave of the pandemic, many said prolonged stretch of work from home (WFH) and increased screen time are leading to rising stress levels among employees. Hence, the need for a blended work model going ahead.Though there is no data to suggest loss of productivity in WFH, the impact on other aspects of work such as innovation, collaboration and ideation have to be observed closely, company officials and HR heads said.“We don't envisage any section of our employees permanently working from home,” said Amitav Mukherji, head, corporate human resources, at ITC. “There are certain tasks which are better done face to face such as collective ideation or critical conversations…whereas WFH has had a positive impact in the form of better time management, more focused meetings and a greater emphasis on outcomes. Right balance between the two would be most desirable,” he said.Rajeshwar Tripathi, chief HR officer, automotive & farm sectors, at Mahindra & Mahindra, said, “WFH seems to have distorted the boundary between professional and personal lives.” Many companies are planning to adopt hybrid models such as three days per week from the office and the remaining days from anywhere, or vice versa.