2020 from an IT company’s perspective and lessons for the future

2020 pandemic

I was to travel on my quarterly visit to the US in early February of 2020, and someone asked me about the new virus that had started making the news, coming out of Wuhan, China. I pooh-poohed the whole situation saying these kinds of viruses have been making the rounds frequently, e.g. the SARS virus, the Bird flu, the Mad Cow disease etc. They have a small life cycle and die a natural death, often being localised in specific pockets of the world. So, this should be no different. I did carry some N-95 masks and pocket sanitisers with me on that trip at my family and friends’ insistence, but I did not expect to use them. My feelings were vindicated as I did not see many travellers wearing masks all through the trip to the US. However, as I was on my way back at the end of February, the news started becoming more serious. I did see a few more masks on the way back, particularly in the transit airport in Doha, Qatar, and I, too, wore one reluctantly, still believing that it was to play safe. I heard that international travellers might be quarantined on arrival in India. I landed in Nagpur on the first of March, and much to my relief, there was no checking at all. I travelled the next day to Pune, and again everything seemed normal. 

Scramble around March

Fast-forward two weeks and all hell had broken loose, as we all now know. We were among the first companies to decide that we would ask all our employees to work from home (WFH) right away and be on the safe side. The government had still not made it mandatory, but we thought we should take adequate precautions. Of course, it was easier said than done, as we did not even have a WFH policy. All WFH requests used to be on an exception basis, and most people worked with “thin clients” in the office, and only a few had company-issued laptops. We could rent some laptops, but not enough, as there was a shortage in the market. Therefore, to expect employees to WFH was a big challenge. We had to figure out a way to have the employees WFH with their thin clients. The issue was that the thin clients did not have any Wi-Fi ability and most of our employees did not have wired internet connections at home. They were usually reliant on their phone hotspots, with Jio being the dominant player. Therefore, we had to figure out a way of ensuring connectivity. The solution came in the form of Wi-Fi extenders with an Ethernet connector that could plug into the thin client. Unfortunately, even these were not available, and by the time we tried to procure them, the government announced a lock-down, making it more difficult. Fortunately, our vendor partner moved heaven and earth and got them delivered to our office. Even then, getting them along with the thin client sets (including accessories like keyboard, mouse, and monitor) to the employees’ homes was a big challenge. Somehow, we got all that done. Some of the employees had their personal laptops/desktops. We were able to have all of them work via Amazon Workspaces through a configuration that validated the session on their smartphone using Multi-Factor Authentication to ensure complete security of our client data, which contains Protected Health Information (PHI).  The month of March was essentially spent resolving all these issues.

Settling into the new normal

Having settled into the WFH mode, we had to decide on a bunch of different things. We implemented a process wherein every team had a daily stand-up for just a few minutes each day to ensure that any issues, including any personal issues related to the pandemic, were bubbled up to the management team. That included a daily check on the health status of all the employees and their families. There were some that had family members who were in essential services like healthcare, police, essential supplies etc. Special attention had to be given to them as they were understandably far more concerned.

New normal being understood through the rest of the year

But as we progressed, we realized that even our way of working had to change. People could no longer work in fixed shifts with a “clock-in” and “clock-out” being specified. There was no help at home; kids and the elderly needed attention. There was limited space, both physical and in terms of the connectivity available. Sitting for hours together in front of the laptop/thin client system with no proper chair/desk was not only difficult; in the long run, it caused serious issues. In some cases, people found that their AWS machines were getting too slow to work effectively, particularly in the normal office time. The list can go on.

So we decided to implement several changes. To name just a few among them:

• No fixed shift timing. Full flexibility to the employees to log in and log out as they felt convenient, so long as they were getting the job done. Some people started using the early hours before the kids woke up. Some started working late at night when the kids had gone to sleep. 
• It became clear that the managers and supervisors also needed to reorient themselves. For someone used to managing by “looking over the shoulder” this was a significant shift. They had to trust the team to do the right thing, with no-one looking over the shoulder. We had to tell them to focus on the output and even discount if there wasn’t enough output due to exceptional circumstances. Most managers (including some of us),  who had always believed that working from home is far less productive, it was a pleasant surprise to see that the output did not suffer, which increased in some cases.
• We educated the employees that they do not need to be worried about - and certainly not apologetic about - noises in the background. Of course, everyone quickly learnt to be on mute when not speaking. 
• Since folks were running out of their data limits pretty quickly, they needed to upgrade their plans or buy top-up data packs. We announced a monthly allowance to take care of the additional expenses on that account
• Individual needs varied. Some needed inverters/UPSs. Some others had to get good broadband/fiber installed; some had to buy chairs/tables to work comfortably; others did not have the space to put the furniture in but invested in good, wall-mounted monitors, built-in mic and speakers. To cater to such varied needs, we announced a package for the year, with full reimbursement up to a limit and 50% reimbursement above that for any such requirement. 
• Since people could not socialize with their teams as they did earlier over lunch and the occasional dinner, we encouraged people to have virtual socials and happy hours, with each one ordering takeout and getting reimbursed for the same.
• One of the challenges that came up was how to retain the great culture despite people coming on board without meeting their colleagues even once. There are teams in which not even one person has seen the physical office. How does one build a good culture leading to great teamwork in such teams? Obviously, the leaders, assisted by HR, have to take special efforts to achieve that. Some of the ideas that came up were celebrating family birthdays together virtually, having virtual happy hours with or without the families, doing fun programs like quizzes.
• However, in some ways, this also helped in building a more global (or “glocal”) culture. There was no difference between a colleague in Pune, another in Goa, and several in the US. So long as they could come together to work, it did not matter where they were. As a result, except for the time zone challenge, it became normal for global teams to work together. Quite inevitably, sharing of individual cultures started happening. Individual customs were understood a little better. 

People started getting a better appreciation for different environments in which colleagues lived and worked. That enabled empathy and a new perspective on processes like clocking time, which suddenly became a non-issue. While that may seem like a trivial gain, it is likely that it will permanently change the way contribution is looked at, even when people work from the office.

Looking forward

As we progress through bouts of optimism and pessimism on the waves of the new case numbers, vaccination statistics etc., it is becoming clear that the way of working has changed permanently for us. On the one hand, the pandemic has proven that work can happen anywhere with almost no impact on the output. People happily spent a little more time than in the office, but considering zero commute time, they could get more time to themselves. Some teams started delivering higher output from home, depending on the nature of work. Therefore, the question that started being asked was whether we could make this a permanent arrangement. The only downside that has come up is the socialization among teams that builds team spirit and helps them achieve common goals. Therefore, the model that is now emerging in several companies is to have people work predominantly from home but come to the office on a rotating basis. Some companies have already implemented a routine that is 1 or 2 days in the office and the rest of the days WFH each week, on a rotation basis. Others are toying with the idea of a week in the office followed by a few weeks WFH. 

Inevitably, these kinds of models will lead to several fallouts that will need to be addressed. To list a few:

• Real estate footprints will be much smaller and therefore make it more efficient. If it is 20% attendance on any given day, one can have five times the same office strength.
• Offices will be more of collaboration and socialization spaces. Some companies have already converted parts of their seating spaces into collaboration or entertainment areas where the teams could bond together.  Some of us think that the days/weeks in the office might be the least productive as time would be spent more on other activities, for a good reason.
• For those working a week in the office and multiple weeks from home, many in the workforce would not have a permanent residence in that city. They might prefer to travel only for that week and stay in temporary lodgings, including friends and relatives. Some companies are thinking of renting service apartments in a single building and allow their use on a no-profit-no-loss basis to the employees that would like to use them in this model. 
• Some roles that are more individual and do not need much teamwork could be permanently remote. Particularly in case of niche skills that are hard to find, companies are willing to have them permanently remote, with company-sponsored travel on the rare occasions when they must be brought into the office. 
• On a broader level, HR strategies and tactics, including recruitment, onboarding, training, engagement, retention and even offboarding, needs to evolve. Some specific examples with possible solutions in brackets:
• Recruitment: 
• No face-to-face interviews. Are you sure it is the same person that is going to join you? (We ask for a photo on the resume, and each interview is on video with screenshots taken and stored)
• How do you know the person is not working another job? More importantly, do you care? How about gig workers? (Ideally, one should not care if the output is being delivered. However, over a long period, it is not sustainable. Frequent 1x1 check-ins, occasional contact with the family etc. will help)
• What if you are accepting remote workers and there is a local festival that you don’t follow as a company holiday? Example: some of our employees cannot possibly take evening calls during Ganapati festival. (Have much more flexibility in terms of time off, leaves so that such issues are taken care of).
• On the flip side, the talent pool that would otherwise not be tappable is now available to you, particularly in the case of niche skills that are hard to find in your neighbourhood. (Be prepared to offer permanently remote positions, with the company flying the person into the office occasionally as and when needed).
• Onboarding:
• Again, is this the same person that you interviewed? (Check against the photos taken earlier).
• How do you ensure that the person gets to know the respective  Manager, the HR contact, the senior management, the escalation points in case of any issue? (Have a welcome meeting by senior management, another by HR and the direct manager, preferably with the buddy assigned. This is apart from the team meetings that happen regularly).
• Training:
• How do you keep the person engaged through hours of online training? (Ensure proper breaks to avoid video fatigue. Have fun, interactive quizzes. Intersperse with “light” content where possible).
• How does “shadowing” or “buddy system” work virtually? Are the persons that are supposed to be shadowed trained on doing it well? How do we substitute the informal “turn around and ask someone” training on the job?  (Choose folks that enjoy helping the new joiners and have the empathy to be buddies. Tell them to check in frequently during the first few days with the new joiner until it becomes a routine. Check-in with the new joiner whether the buddy system is working well at the end of each week).
• Engagement:
• When people have not seen the office, never met anyone in their team or group, how do you create a sense of engagement? (Come up with innovative games/activities to encourage groups. New video tools allow for private breakout rooms. Use them creatively to have such activities).
• For those that have been used to the camaraderie over lunch and coffee breaks and the occasional team event, won’t they start drifting apart? (Have a set time for lunch and encourage the team to have virtual lunch together where they do not talk about work. It could be once a week or some frequency that the team likes. Sponsor the lunch at some frequency).
• Nothing like some team sports like football, cricket. How do you keep that spirit going? (Participate in fantasy leagues as one example. Have other sports like bridge, chess, poker etc., that they can have leagues in as teams).
• Retention:
• So easy to give interviews sitting at home and quit if you find another better offer. How do we ensure that longevity? (No different than in the earlier days of working from the office except for the convenience. Retention has to be through the proper role, proper growth and other engagement mechanisms anyway).
• Off boarding:
• How do you get the assets back? As per the proposed law, you have to settle the dues within two days of exit. But if the person is in another town/city, how do you get him to send the assets back? Even if you are willing to write off the assets, what about the machines’ sensitive data? (Have thin clients, no storage and use virtualization technology to protect data. Assets could be written off to an extent and budged as a percentage loss).

We have seen something that happens once in a lifetime. As someone put it, BC might well be interpreted as the Before Covid-19 era. We have learnt a lot and probably continue to learn more lessons thanks to this pandemic.