COVID-19 forces cos to adopt lucid work structure

There has been an increase in lucid structure of employment where people have been asked to do all level jobs irrespective of the designations mostly in IT, FMCG, e-commerce, and retail sectors due to the disruptions caused by COVID-19, according to experts.

They said that the traditional department-based hierarchical model may not work in these times and companies have been thinking about the best possible way to deliver productivity.

“It is largely because of the shortage of staff and also to ensure that work keeps going, people have been asked to do all level jobs irrespective of the designation etc … It comprises execution jobs at all levels and categories, for example writing codes in an IT company or even delivery of goods in case of an commerce industry,” TeamLease Services Business Head- Industrial Manufacturing and Engineering and General Staffing, Sudeep Sen told PTI.

The bottom line is that everyone should know and have the capability to perform jobs which are key to the business functions and also adjacent roles, does it mean that there is no need to specialists, certainly there is a need and it shall always be there, however, in situations like pandemic times, with less of employees or remote work environment, it is important to be hands on and be ready to do all jobs, he added.

Echoing the view, CIEL HR Services Director and CEO Aditya Mishra opined that this is a very new trend for companies outside IT and engineering. “They look at resources as a pool in the firm and choose the best man or woman for each job or role to be filled.

This model works in a knowledge-based and expertise-based environment where the employees are expected to be self-motivated and do not require active coaching and guidance to deliver the results.

“They are able to quickly adapt to new work environments that constitute not only a new workplace and stakeholders but also co-workers, supervisor and team members,” he added.

A large part of government officers and armed forces work in this model, he added. This model provides tremendous opportunities to employees to learn, adapt and grow and they do not develop deep roots in any system, find this is fulfilling and stimulating, he pointed out.

“This model allows the employer organisation a huge amount of flexibility to deploy their workforce in the most effective manner,” he added.

Schoolguru Eduserve CEO and Founder Shantanu Rooj said owing to the lockdown and work from home, companies have been thinking about the best possible way to deliver productivity.

“We realised that the traditional department-based hierarchical model may not work in these times — several of our employees are deployed at the project sites and they would have little to contribute as several other functions like content recording, editing, studio management, client servicing among others will not be able to function and, hence, will not be able to contribute,” he noted.

So, he said, the company decided to move away from the department based approach to a project based approach and shortlisted four projects each in the five domains — sales, marketing, product, team and foundation, which includes operations, technology, human resource HR.

“We created project leads and then asked them to select their team members to deliver the project. We were more sensitive about the competency of the person and their willingness rather than the department they belong to.

“We have allowed our employees to be part of more than one project to drive optimal productivity. By this method, we have been able to involve most of our employees, have started developing cross-functional expertise and are investing in training to improve competence of our teams,” he added.

All such functions in the organisation that does not require a specialist, can be accomplished by this model, however, some specific functions like sales and technology would still need specialised people dedicated to those roles, he said.

This model is beneficial for the employees also because it makes them relevant and they become good with multiple skills, he added. — PTI