Pandemic shifted the workplace culture and set the “work from home” as “The Norm”.
However, this working model had many loopholes as per industry experts. One major such shortcoming that was put forth was growth and recognition.
The WFH settings makes it particularly difficult to get an employee recognized. After the pandemic ebbed, companies have now increasingly calling back their employees to work from office.
However, recently private lender Axis Bank has said that its employees working from anywhere were recognized well in appraisals.
As per the bank, the employees who were remote working were awarded higher performance ratings and promotions as compared to the overall population.
Axis Bank’s president & HR head, Rajkamal Vempati said that as evidenced in annual appraisals, the cohort that was working remotely has held up against working in a hybrid or work-from-office (WFO) mode.
Axis Bank ‘GIG-A-Opportunities’
Two years ago, the bank rolled out ‘GIG-A-Opportunities’, a new platform for alternate work models to attract the finest talent and which embraces the ‘work from anywhere’ model.
In August 2020, Axis Bank had said that over the next 3 years, they have a target of up to 15 per cent of incremental hiring in alternate work models. As we speak today, the private lender has 30 per cent eligible workforce is in alternate models currently.
The HR Head said that “In the WFA cohort, we see lower attrition and higher performance. For us, this past year has been about breaking myths and fears about a reshaped workplace”.
He also said that the freelancers are making significant contributions towards the delivery of strategic projects and priorities.
Vempati cited better time management and better management by remote leaders as the reasons behind this.
On the diametric opposite to Axis are several IT firms including TCS, Wipro who have started to call back their employees to work from office.
IT major TCS & Wipro, both have asked its employees to work from the office for 3 days a week.
No Clear Cut Winner When It Comes to Productivity
Kamal Karanth, Cofounder of specialist staffing firm Xpheno said that it the productivity scores are incomparable for WFO, WFH (work-from-home) and hybrid due to the larger ecosystem context in which they operated — and are currently operating — in is unprecedented.
He said that “Statistically, sufficient frames of reference do not exist to call out a clear winner. However, what’s notable is the age and experience of managers have a huge say. While younger managers and first-time bosses vote for the inertia of WFH and hybrid models, it’s the older and senior managers who are seen batting for WFO”.
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