India leaders increasingly agree that the workplace ? which in the past was for the people ? has now evolved into a workspace of the people and that the future will entail further reimagining of the workforce and work model. Aligning individual goals to organizational purpose has now become all the more critical with the pivotal role it plays in driving organizational growth in a hybrid world. Despite this realization, cost pressures, competing investments or priorities, lack of systems and data, and organizational culture are the biggest inhibitors faced by Indian leaders in creating a more fit for the future workplace, according to PwC India?s People and culture first: Transformation journey in the future of work report. It also reveals that the future of work involves tapping into talent virtually in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities on the one hand and leveraging the gig economy on the other.
The report further highlights the six no-regrets moves identified by Indian leaders to prepare for the future of work and also presents the six imperatives identified by PwC India to eliminate the blockers to workforce challenges and future-proof organizations.
These no-regret moves and imperatives are:
- Anticipate and plan for the future: Recognise ?prioritizing and sense making? as an organizational capability that is critical to driving investment decisions.
- Build trust in the organization: Democratise the workplace concept to focus on a ?workplace of the people? as against a ?workplace for the people.?
- Optimize workforce productivity and performance: Use technology to enable productivity and performance, while management enables culture.
- Enable the skills of the future: Prioritise culture as a competitive advantage.
- Prepare for and deploy technology with humans in mind: Focus on human-led, tech-enabled ways of working.
- Build ability to rapidly access and deploy talent: View the organisation in the ?skills and capability age.?
organization?Earlier workforce challenges centered around broader areas of organizational design and capabilities woven in with the organizational culture. But with the changing nature of the workplace, the challenges seem to be more employee-driven, both globally and locally. At this juncture, it is important for all organizations across the world to prioritize leadership capabilities in order to orchestrate changes and move the needle in business,? concluded Chaitali Mukherjee, Partner, and Leader, PwC India.
