Several startups, including Meesho, and Flyhomes, are pushing for the ‘work from anywhere’ model. The aim behind the move is to boost flexibility.
Social commerce platform Meesho is allowing its employees to work from anywhere permanently. This comes at a time when India Inc. has asked more employees to return to the office after the number of Covid-19 cases decreased.
Meesho, Flyhomes, NoBroker, Angel One (previously Angel Broking), ITC Infotech, Magicpin, and Springworks are just a few of the organizations that have gone completely remote or given some or all of their employees the option to work from anywhere.
Their working methods may differ, but they all meet workers’ rising desire for more flexibility and better work-life balance in a post-Covid atmosphere and competitive labor market.
A startup in real estate Flyhomes, for example, is a remote-first company that has given employees the option of working entirely remotely or in a hybrid approach.
Meanwhile, NoBroker has a fully remote policy in place for select customer service teams. Magicpin, a retail platform, launched last month a remote-first model in which employees may work from anywhere.
Kartik Mandaville, CEO of Springworks, an HR technology business that was one of the first to go totally remote, said, “Employee happiness has been through the roof, and retention has been strong,”
She adds, “Especially now, when everyone else in the company has/is opening offices, we’re seeing a flood of applications because those folks realize they don’t want to spend hours while going to office daily and are more drawn to remote organizations.”
ITC Infotech implemented a “work from anywhere” strategy in November of last year.
The ‘work from anywhere’ strategy has also made it possible to access a huge talent pool.
Ashish Kumar Singh, CHRO at Meesho, stated, “The WFA policy broadens the pool of talent and provides us with access to the brightest minds, regardless of their location. At the moment, 95 percent of our overall workforce works from other places, including other nations.”
The ability to ‘work from anywhere’ has also become a persuasive feature for some employees to remain with the company.
According to Gaganpreet Luthra, managing director of Flyhomes India, women no longer have to leave their jobs because their husband has been transferred to another city.
According to human resource gurus, such businesses will have an advantage in the competition for talent.
“They are likely to emerge as attractive job destinations and will have an advantage over those that offer no or limited flexibility,” said Arvind Usretay, Mercer Consulting’s commercial leader for India and South Asia (India).
However, issues remain.
NoBroker cofounder Amit Agarwal, said, “It’s not going to be a happy ending. The most significant advantage of working from home is the creation of a coherent, energetic, and connected culture. We need to see how our HR and leaders harness these learnings and guarantee that we keep our culture intact across fully-remote personnel.”
Working remotely demands an updated communication and collaboration strategy, which each of these businesses is developing.
Employees also get together occasionally in a time. Meesho, for example, requires its teams to gather for work every quarter.
Springworks stated that it facilitates face-to-face engagement with off-sites, with the next one scheduled for May.
Brij Bhushan, cofounder of Magicpin, stated that staff gather in the office in the first week of the month for greater bonding. During such gatherings, events such as internal cricket competitions are organized to help staff bond further.
