Rakesh Wadhwa:

We see this shift to work from home and that's got to stay. Do you see a strategic shift in the way companies view employment? Do you think gig economy is now going to be an important factor when companies are planning their workforce strategies? Is that a good track take?

 

Alpesh Shah:

Will that be a key part as we start looking at our strategy? Absolutely Yes. In fact a lot of discussions that we're having with many of our clients is around the future of work. We are all privileged. We are looking at this from our homes. How many people do we think in India actually have homes which are geared to work from home and they can actually sit at home and get good space. If you have larger houses you have two parents two children wanting to do schooling from home as well. Doesn't really work. So that's one challenge. the second one which is a big one that all companies will have to keep in mind as you look at it is how do you think about culture? In the short term yes, all of us have been pleasantly surprised by how this remote working has worked. And yes it has worked out reasonably well but that's because we knew each other right. We were all familiar with each other. We had spent months if not years together just imagine you'd never met your team ever. And if you were only doing this work from home, how would that feel? think about recruiting people. Think about onboarding people. Think about affiliation, think about engagement, think about how will you disseminate your organization's culture into 10000 people?

Once things come back, whether it's three months 12 months 18 months, we will just go back to numbers. And the truth always lies somewhere in between. So I don't think we are ready for a hundred percent work from home model. I don't think we would ever recommend it because there's also a value to social meetings. But I don't think we'll also go back to adjust the team model. Right? 

How will people onboard people? How will you recruit people? But every HR function is going to have to think differently in the near term and the medium term. So that's something that we're all in for.