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We are all aware of the fact that it is indeed a difficult task now to predict accurately what the workforce landscape will look like post-COVID 19. The pandemic witnessed the global workforce transition to working from home and adopt a new working environment – specifically in organizations that did not have a strong remote working policy in place.

Now, as our economy and the society at large adapt to the ‘new normal’, organizations are faced with the challenge of determining what their workforce will look like in the future, as they face a different business environment and changing preferences of the employees. It is now time for employers to determine how they plan to re-engage the workforce and proactively address their concerns.

Managing talent in today’s pandemic-stricken world invariably poses certain dichotomies that are all centered around unpredictability and assumptions. Now, while businesses tend to recover through cycles, talent has to be positioned to be productive both during and immediately after the pandemic.

What are the underlying talent management principles that organizations need to adopt in order to manage and lead through this global crisis?

Managing individual as well as team performance and productivity

Crises always test the robustness of an organization’s performance management and talent evaluation system. A crisis such as COVID-19 has highlighted that during a crisis, business continuity planning is always a priority, while workforce management and hiring talent become secondary tasks.

It is important to plan around the business directives. But we cannot overlook the fact that organizations are made up of people whose collective response to a crisis determines how well the organization manages through the challenge and recovery phases.

Although most organizations only focus on the collective productivity of a team or department, it is very important to recognize the strong performers during the phase. The inability to do that would result in an organization losing out on star performers as soon as the market bounces back.

Therefore, it is important to ensure that these critical talents, both individual and collective, are properly recognized, assessed, managed, and engaged.

Navigating through the crisis with adaptive leadership

The pandemic is posing a lot of serious challenges to leaders worldwide. The pace at which business owners, thought leaders, policymakers, and researchers react to this complex crisis will be making a profound difference to the lives and livelihood of people.

The leadership needs to be more proactive and look at new ways and means to manage with empathy, navigate business environments, anticipate the future course of actions, and in the end, create a win-win strategy. As crises do not come with an easy solution and are characterized by a large amount of uncertainty and ambiguity, it is important to locate such leadership and acquire them. And the ongoing pandemic highlights the need for adaptive leadership who are open and transparent about learning, use collective decision-making processes, and can build trust with individuals and communities.

Building capability and readjusting roles

COVID-19 outbreak has indeed become the landscape of role alignments and capability building. This has been made possible because of the easy availability of remote collaboration tools, and a lot of free time at home.

Successful organizations worldwide have been open to opportunities to revisit core role descriptions, promote greater learning, and create new opportunities for their talent. This has helped them to broaden and flex the work roles to be able to align with the dynamic priorities of the organization and boost performance and productivity.

This global crisis has precipitated a fundamental shift in the way we work. There are immense opportunities for enterprises and service providers who can proactively adapt to this new normal.

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Apart from the fear of the ‘actual’ contagion, we are all adversely affected by a hoard of misinformation circulated across social media, uncertainty, and a terminal fear of the assumed apocalypse! Our coping mechanism has indeed been affected, and the popular mindset has switched from that of living to basic survival.

In an article, Michael Gervais states that stress enables us to prepare ourselves to meet the “demands and challenges of our environment – up to a point.” He talks about how the uncertainty around us can influence our neuro-chemical and neuro-electrical reactions paving the way for sharper attention, increased motivation, and a boosted immune system.

However, the adaptive immune system that keeps us safe from viral infections often take a hard hit when the stress system stays activated for a prolonged period. And therefore, managing our stress now is more important than ever!

Business leaders and managers are under severe and extraordinary pressure – adjusting to the new ways of working, concern about organizational stability, and managing a team with unique issues at the individual level. And then comes in the other critical factors – daily details of work, logistics, and new demands from the clients.

As an ethical and responsible team lead, you must focus on the points made in this article for bringing about a positive change in the system.

Identifying the Reasons for the Stress

There are multiple reasons for being stressed in the current scenario – it may be the fear of the zoonotic virus, increased or decreased workload, business revenue, family issues, and the list goes on. So, how do you understand whether a person is stressed? Look for the signs when talking to them. You will understand from their body language or facial expressions. And, now with teams going remote, you will be required to opt for video conferencing more to get those tiny cues during the conversation.

Once you are sure that the person is stressed, it is advised to motivate them to flush the problem out by talking to you. We need to realize this that our team members are spending a lot of time indoors and that makes it easy for them to dwell on the issues disturbing them, and then build enormous complex structures in their minds.

You need to break this chain!

Consulting with Teammates and Adjusting the Priorities

As soon as you identify the stress triggers, it is then time to extend your support to the affected teammates. If any of your teammates complain about decreased workload and focus getting diffused, you will be required to structure their day’s work time by using their skills elsewhere in the business, wherever these workers can add some value.

On the other hand, if someone complains about the overburdening of work, it will be your prime responsibility to be able to put aside a portion of those tasks and help them focus on the immediate and urgent workload. Or you may simply split the work among your other teammates.

This will not only ensure trust and cooperation from your teams but will also help you see a great boost in the productivity of your team.

Identifying the ‘Good’ Stress

Just as it is important for you to identify the reasons of stress and find ways and means to overcome them, it is also very important for you to understand the ‘good’ stress – something that helps in the human function curve.

When there is limited work pressure, eventually the performance of the team goes down. This is what experts call the ‘hypo-stress’ that is characterized by boredom and restlessness. And when both these elements increase, the human mind reaches a peak that is known as ‘eustress’ which is characterized by excitement and satisfaction. And, as soon as the curve begins to dip in favor of work pressure, and the productivity is low, the human mind is then is a state of ‘hyper stress’ which is characterized by the feeling of overworked and overloaded. And if the dip increases, our mind finally reach the state of ‘distress’.

Armed with this knowledge, you may now be able to formulate a better stress-management action plan for yourself and the workforce. As well as finding your state of ‘eustress’, you need to ensure every member on your team find theirs by identifying the sweet spot of pressure and performance.

Good luck! Happy working!

Technology – in the form of the mobile that you hold while reading this, the social media channel that got you here, and the network connectivity facilitating our engagement, etc. – has become an integral part of our waking hours. Technology has dramatically improved our lives and is an invaluable resource for everything that you can think about.

New technology and applications are being released everyday with one promise – redefining your modern workplace with process streamlining and productivity improvement. Moreover, with the deadly virus disrupting every aspect of life, digital transformation and its implementation has accelerated immensely.

The question is, how will technology cater to the future of work like? Especially, when remote working has become the norm which has deeply entwined our professional and personal lives?

The concept of remote working gained prominence during the lockdown as more and more organizations and employees started realizing the tangible and intangible benefits involved. And with unlimited access to new technologies, remote leaders were able to bring the decentralized workforce together. In addition, the paradigm shift in work culture over the last few years, it is inevitable that the future of work will witness colossal advancements in the way remote working is done.

With every passing day, business leaders are gaining a better understanding of the benefits of remote work – improved productivity, employee wellness, retention of talent, effective recruitment, and reduced absenteeism, to say the least. Remote working has also facilitated the hiring of teams and professionals worldwide with a minimum overhead cost. Also, commuting time and cost have been forgotten. Workers are focusing more on balancing their work and life. They are now gaining freedom to choose where they want to work from – bedroom, coffee shop, beach, or maybe from a different country!

In addition to the remote-work revolution, the future of work will be driven by the millennials. This young workforce has been exposed to the good side of technology for most part of their lives, and these tech-savvy workers will always be a priority for organizations. As derived from the trends suggested, digital skills will be the new currency of employment as the demand for IT, analytics, social media, SEO will be increasing.

On the other hand, employers will be required to adapt quickly to the desires of this new workforce – the ability to work flexibly from anywhere, liberal choice of work, and improved work-life balance. This new band of workers are ambitious and adventurous, which makes them digital nomads. Providing these digital workers with continuous training and personal development will also be an important strategy for the employers.

Therefore, creating a well-structured plan to work remotely will ensure that every stakeholder in this new era of work will stand to benefit. If approached innovatively and responsibly, the technology available today would offer workers and organizations with a practical path that is much more fun and appealing than commuting to work five days a week.

Each day more and more organizations are shifting to remote working to keep their businesses running amidst the pandemic. Remote working may not be a new concept – but it is a new norm for many. COVID-19 is forcing us to address the challenges of remote working – accountability of the workforce, connecting and collaborating with coworkers, working in a self-isolation mode, etc.

Helping organizations to work effectively from ‘anywhere’ has always been one of the chief objectives NexAEI as is expressed in our brand tagline – Be Here. Anywhere. Over the last few years, we have been working with distributed teams spread across locations, providing the managers and business owners with necessary workforce insights and analytics, and creating a connected and agile workplace that has resulted in the fact that today we know what exactly you need to do as a remote manager during an uncertain time like this.

The Art of Communication

Communication is one of the most important aspects when it comes to managing remote teams. For a lot of industry leaders, this new mode of communication will require true intent and real focus to learn. This means team leads and managers will need to take time and give thought in creating a set up for video conferences for connecting with distant teammates in a more friendly manner. The idea is to get as close as possible to give your team a feeling that everyone is together once again!

Bonus Tip: For teams that require a lot of collaboration we at NexAEI recommend using Microsoft Teams. This tool has been helping us by providing real-time communication and context through chat history.

Leveraging the Right Kind of Technology

As remote working is all about collaboration, you must develop a norm whereby every member of your team starts using the same tool for collaboration. On top of that reducing the tool stack will help to minimize any confusion among team members and it will also ensure that everyone has easy access to documents, policies, messages, and protocols.

An important thing to keep in mind when going remote is the fact that you cannot fret and fume about glitches on the internet. It goes without saying that with a huge number of employees now increasingly relying on home internet services, bandwidth is going to be pushed harder than before because some of them may not be equipped to handle this sudden influx.

Bonus Tip: While working remotely, what is said verbally is inconsistent with what is communicated through body language. This creates a scope of miscommunication. Therefore, we advise you to use your laptop camera while at video conferences so that you don’t miss the subtle non-verbal cues and behaviors of your teammates, especially when someone is confused.

Emphasizing on Work/Life Balance

As leaders, it is our responsibility to be able to model a healthy work/life balance for our teams. As the home has become the new workplace, for many of your teammates it will be hard to sperate work and personal life.

Avoiding any form of communication about work after the shift hours. Because any communication beyond the shift hours sends across the idea that you are expecting your team to work 24×7, which is not the case! You should also encourage your teams to take frequent breaks and take a walk in the balcony and get some fresh air.

Bonus Tip: It is always welcoming for your teammates if you can make sure that they feel it OK if their toddler makes an appearance on a video call, or if they need to reschedule a call for any urgent family work.

The COVID-19 crisis demands that organizational leaders step up and help their teammates to focus on the essential that can be achieved only through proper communication and collaboration. As a leader, you must remind your team that you are always around to help and support them to succeed. This is an important function for all leaders and managers, whether that is done in-person or virtually!

Happy working!

Desperate times call for desperate measures!

One such desperate measure was a complete shift of work from the office to home due to the outbreak and rapid transmission of the novel coronavirus. This shift has not come free of cost, rather companies worldwide have been enduring a great deal of inconvenience to date. One such badly hit section is the Human Resources Department (HRD) of each company.

A prime responsibility of an HR is screening and recruitment. Recruitments previously needed direct contact of an actual workplace, physically. Now, as working from home is the new norm, e-recruitment or digital recruitment or socially distanced recruitment has become a desperate measure.

Giants like Mahindra & Mahindra, Procter & Gamble, Flipkart, Samsung, Goldman Sachs, Visa, etc. already welcomed interns for their virtual programs. The HRD is leaving no stone unturned to roll out initiatives and arrange for events to keep remote employees connected and close to the office.

It’s about time that the HRs get some relief. Here’s to a comprehensive automated virtual onboarding process, NexAEI – EmbarQ! This state-of-the-art application makes for a seamless e-transition of an aspirant to an employee. With just a few clicks, an HR can manage all the onboarding formalities (both pre and post-joining).

Notable Features:

Hassle-free and Fun Onboarding Experience

Provides an optimized onboarding portal to get rid of all the onboarding hassles, cut the monotony, and drag it towards fun and engagement.

Exhaustive Onboarding Process Streamlining

Provides visibility of the stakeholders and send onboarding tasks to the aspirant via the portal. The documentation status is visible to HR too.

Quick, Easy, and Environment-Friendliness

Makes way for paperless onboarding in today’s digital world and cuts down a lot of the organization’s costs.

Tailor-made Configuration

Works in sync with your brand and helps in familiarizing the newbie with your culture over the portal.

These are some basic onboarding requirements that the HRs everywhere are facing issues with. This work from home or work from anywhere concept is here to stay and all we can do is to find out ways for easing out every difficulty that comes its way. Even if we are working from distant locations, it should not stop us from either adopting successful digital onboarding measures or building highly impactful teams.

Brainstorming, as we all know, is a vital element in every business. Bringing together various points of view, encouraging critical thinking, and building non-judgmental and progressive team connections are its prime aspects. Organizations arrange for brainstorming sessions from time to time for generating ideas.

This was the usual scenario, pre-lockdown. In this new age of COVID-19, we are socially distanced and working remotely from various locations. As working from anywhere and everywhere has become the new norm, brainstorming sessions need to be modified as well!

To start with, let us point out some requisites for Virtual or Remote Brainstorming –

1. Exhaustive use of appropriate collaborative tools, techniques, and technologies
2. Clear definition of the topic’s purpose
3. Scheduling the session beforehand & setting a time limit
4. Appointment of an enabler
5. Send out follow-up

Note, working from remote locations has provided us with one advantage. Now it is more convenient to engage a larger pool of employees in a brainstorming session in comparison to the office brainstorming sessions due to time and availability constraints then. But it is vital to identify the desired expertise and select participants accordingly. It is better to pick from a diverse pool because only then can one guarantee different mindsets, distinctive perspectives, and varied problem-solving skills.

Scheduling meetings can be demanding when employees are working from remote locations, whereas brainstorming is not. To devise beneficial ideas, the team does not need to be together physically. People tend to think in different ways when they are alone. So, each member can ideate separately, and an enabler can document all the ideas before any discussion. The entire list can then be circulated several times within the group to rule out some ideas every time and finally come up with the most efficient and promising solution to the problem by the end of the session.

Going by the construal-level theory, employees being distant from each other as well as the problem location, tend to think more abstractly about the problem. Such abstraction in the initial stage can prove to be beneficial for finding various correlations for providing necessary insights. Not being able to present specific and effective solutions can be a problem with remote brainstorming as it is not easy to work with absolutely general and unclear ideas.

By keeping a close tab on the present situations all over the world, it can be undoubtedly said that companies will have more than enough problems in the coming days to solve. Hence, even if working remotely, brainstorming needs to be perfected. Some tips here –

1. New ideas being fragile, handle them with care, and keep a check on your demeanor.
2. There may be differences in time zones, so take time and conduct the sessions in bursts.
3. Rather than making and sharing boring spreadsheets, make the brainstorming sessions livelier by being visual.
4. Refrain from putting people on any spot and let them come up with innovative ideas.

When you onboard the best brainstorming tools and techniques along with the most efficient participants, your ideas are bound to grow. Whether you are conducting a brainstorming session in your office conference room or from your drawing room couch, the effective concoction of various competent ideas will undoubtedly dig out results for the company.

Adaptability has now become one of the most vital traits for a knowledge worker. Assessing innovative and relevant status quos, making appropriate decisions based on that assessment, and its subsequent implementation is the present-day mantra for being on top of your game in a world running on the New Normal. In other words, the BBC had already called adaptability the ‘X-Factor’ for career growth.

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have been exposed to a situation that demands extreme adaptability skills. But the question is – are we adaptive enough to fight COVID-19 and at the same time work as efficiently as before to save the businesses from being crushed?

All we need to do is –

1. cultivate adaptability within ourselves
2. replace the old working tactics with new skills
3. adapt to the ever-changing circumstances and tactics

The Darwinian Theory of Evolution regarding the ‘survival of the fittest’ fits in the present situation perfectly. The ones that fail to adapt during this challenging time will be wiped away by the industry itself. So, the need needs to be strongly felt.

The ones that are continuously trying to adapt and striving every day will be standing strong at the end of this pandemic and the ones that cannot hack it, here’s how you can push yourselves and cultivate adaptability within-

A complete makeover of Judgement

Do away with your idea of doing a particular work in a specific method. We know that changes are petrifying, but instead of fearing away, take it as an opportunity to improve and thereby cultivate adaptability. Learn to be receptive to diverse thoughts.

No risk, no gain

As the old saying goes, you cannot proceed without taking risks. It is this risk that will help you to be adaptive in whatever situation comes your way. Besides, you can also help to cultivate the same adaptability among others by adding risk-taking activities to your team-meeting rosters.

Receptivity needs encouragement

The first condition for accepting a change is to be receptive to it, and it is said that encouragement does wonders in developing the same. As soon as such a positive and open ambiance is created, people start evolving and thereby cultivate receptivity. This cultivation culminates in adaptability.

No substitute for learning

To be adaptable, you ought to be curious. Only if you are inquisitive, you will welcome the learning process. With remote working being the new norm, organizations are somewhat forced to take up new technologies and change their working procedures to keep the business up. Only when you learn about the newly introduced techniques and technologies, their processes, and outputs, you can form a vision and work accordingly.

To conclude, you need to understand that this pandemic has changed every bit of your operating plans and methods. The only way you can get yourself back on track is by cultivating adaptability. Because its importance in fighting the COVID-19 situation can never be dodged!

Working from home is fun if done intentionally. But when you are forced into a house arrest for an indefinite period due to a pandemic taking the world head-on, it is neither fun nor leisure. Besides, working from home in the pandemic era can lead to some grave complications.

The pandemic, coupled with its fear and the subsequent lockdown, is taking a toll on mental health. People are losing focus and subsequently facing the loss of motivation. This turn-off is vividly visible in their professional lives. Loss of motivation is the main complication that companies are facing these all over the world.

Worldwide companies are leaving no stone unturned to make their employees cheerful and optimistic and motivating them as much as possible. Take it from the HRs, they are constantly churning out new and innovative ways to pull up employee morale even in this ‘work from home’ set-up.

As work-from-home (WFH) is becoming the new norm, HRs have started repurposing various digital means to take over the floor conversations and fun events. All they need to do is keep the employees motivated. To achieve this, the HRs recommend –

More video conferences and fewer voice calls

The first thing that the video calls will do is to motivate the employees to get off house clothes and get somewhat decked up for the video call. This is known to blow confidence into the otherwise lazy people and make them feel closer to their colleagues and office. Even if the subject is trivial, let every employee speak and express his or her opinion over the video call. Help them rebuild their confidence.

No substitute for recognition

Recognition in the form of rewards (monetary or non-monetary) is the biggest cheerleader of all times. If an employee has done something worth recognizing, shower appreciations, and encouragements on him or her. It works like magic on depressed people. It will work as a productivity-booster as well.

One-on-one conversation is the key

In challenging times like this, employees might get themselves into an existential crisis, and here, communication can play its cards. A manager or team leader connecting with the teammates on a personal one-on-one level boosts their motivation levels to the maximum. A simple reassurance of backing or one empathetic move to help or a small motivational line to inspire does the job.

Fun activities are imperative

Face it, working from home is too monotonous, and sometimes the deterrence comes from this monotony as well. Whether it team bonding events or jamming sessions, remote working needs to cover these as well. One day in a week, preferably the weekend should let people loosen up after an entire week of continuous work amid the fear of COVID-19 transmission.

WFH office timings for work-life balance

A work-life balance needs to be maintained, whether a person is working from home or office. Burnouts are evident when employees are losing themselves to uncertainty. So, people must be generous towards their bodies and minds equally. So, it is helpful to fix particular work timings and refrain from working post that time and at weekends too. This will help people rejuvenate for a busy week again.

To sum it all up

Functioning differently from the regular patterns and routines makes us feel lost and hence demotivated. As working from home is the requirements now, organizations and their respective HR departments are trying day in and out to keep employees connected, motivated, and productive too. This is the first time that we are enduring a pandemic, so none of us have any tried and tested tactic to sail smoothly through this. The management and the HRs are working in a continuous loop to keep up the employee motivation and sparkle so that the swim through this COVID-19 pandemic becomes a bit easier!

An educational institution is the cornerstone of a society and hence a nation. So, its overall safety is a prime requisite when it comes to schools and other educational institutions. With all the security mishaps growing all-powerful worldwide since the last decade, and recently with the health concerns brought about by the COVID-19 outbreak, guardians have become thoughtful about the security of a school campus. Any kind of dereliction on behalf of the schools or other study centers will no longer be dealt with calmly by the parents.

So, the institutions need to emphasize their need for a comprehensive and able visitor management system that can strengthen their security compliance. Schools and other educational institutes are known to get a thousand visitors daily from various professions including, guardians, pick-up persons, guests, volunteers, and even salespeople. In such a scenario, watching over all the visitors and documenting them on pen and paper might be extremely hard for school admins. In such a situation, a digital visitor management system becomes a basic need.

With the lion’s share of the global business sectors investing in premium visitor management systems, why should the education industry be left behind?

Though several aspects make the presence of such a system evident, we will focus on the security aspect herein. Nowadays, parents demand a fault-proof security system to be up and effectively working in the institution their child attends. An effective digital visitor management system can offer you –

• Documentation of every visitor inside the premises (Facial Recognition, KYC Registration)
• Differentiation of students and staff from the rest of the visitors
• Visual deterrence
• No-touch operations and physical distancing

Such a premium solution will keep the institution and the parents on the same page when it comes to student security. Your admin team will be able to breathe as parents will receive every notification through the mobile application regarding –

• Schedule of the parent-teacher meetings
• Reports of child pick-up and drop
• Access of the visitor records

Every facet of student security can be covered by a fitting visitor management system ad one such premium experience can be provided by NexAEI VisMate. Going digital and touchless is the need of the hour. VisMate will be one appropriate and effective visitor management solution in walking your visitors through the primary level of interaction with the institution. With VisMate, your institute will have –

• Touch-free and faster visitor check-ins and check-outs
• Facial recognition-based visitor registration
• Visitor KYC registration for enhanced security
• Parents’ invitation for child pick up and PTMs through the app
• Detailed child pick-up reports
• Access to viewing and downloading visitor records easily
• Multi-lingual support
• Centralized multi-location data
• Co-visitor registration

So, get set and step into a premium world full of beneficial promises to serve your apprentices better and take your institute a notch higher! Visit our website to know more about our offerings!

Getting back to work after this extended lockdown is not going to be a walk in the park. In fact, this time you will have to be extra vigilant about your health and be geared with all your safety practices – washing hands, masks, sanitizers, etc. Excited as we all are at getting back to office and working with our colleagues after a long time, we are also afraid of not getting in contact with the virus that has wreaked havoc across our planet.

The present-day front-line of this battle against COVID-19 at your workplace is undoubtedly your front desk. Let’s wind the clock back a few months. Your front office was crowded with guests who have come in for scheduled meetings, vendors are trying to reach your Admin Manager, delivery personnel bringing in important office equipment.

But now everything has changed along with the concept of managing your reception area.

Given the present situation, the need of a ‘NO-TOUCH’ visitor management system at your front office is your prime responsibility to give your teams and your visitors a COVID-free front office.

Gone are the days of welcoming and managing your visitors with registers and pen. In its place, make way for the AI-powered receptionist, NexAEI VisMate. The touchless technology of VisMate makes visitor management a lot safer for your front office executives.

VisMate enables you to give your guests and visitors a premium contactless registration process in a few simple steps using our Invite Guest feature. You simply log in to your app and send invites to select visitors and guests for a meeting or an event. A unique Guest Identification Number (GIN) is shot out to the visitors on their phones. Now on the day of the meeting or event, the guests after arriving simply need to share the GIN with the front office personnel. And that’s all. The system takes care of the rest for you!

So, with a visitor management solution like NexAEI VisMate, you can boast of –

• A safe office and safer teams
• Complete control over the visitor flow at your front desk
• A premium and safe visitor management experience for your teams and guests

Even today when the world is fighting with the pandemic and struggling every day for a safe existence, you can have your own futuristic and safe no-touch system. With NexAEI VisMate, you will always remain one step ahead!

For more exciting digital offerings for creating a futuristic workplace you can visit www.nexaei.com.