This global shift in the way we work has challenged universal notions of efficiency and productivity. For many established Indian companies, for instance, work-from-home was always in the pipeline, something to be explored in the future but had never been fully implemented due to fear of reduced employee performance. The pandemic proved that these fears were unfounded.

To better understand the long-term impact of COVID-19 on employees, work, and business, we surveyed leadership members across multiple functions and industries. A few key insights emerged from our analysis that not only confirmed some of our hypotheses but also provided us with unique perspectives on how organizational leaders view work in the post-COVID world.

Hybrid is the way forward:

While 88.9% of the leaders surveyed say that COVID has deeply impacted their organizations, the same number also agreed that employee engagement and retention have been affected the most. The sheer organizational unpreparedness with respect to employee engagement is what forced leaders to rethink their talent practices and focus on creating a more flexible working environment.

66.7% of the leaders surveyed said that they found working from home to be beneficial for their respective industries.

While in the initial stages of the pandemic, many companies treated remote-working as a short-term solution, 100% of the leaders we surveyed said that they are already leaning towards a hybrid working model that supports flexibility between working from home as well as office.

Organizations have realized that a hybrid model may result in long-term benefits like increased employee safety and reduced OPEX, especially for companies based in high-expense cities or metros.

While hybrid is decisively the way forward, our survey indicated that most leaders are in no hurry to implement new ways of working. The overall approach is to wait and observe what works, instead of making hasty decisions.