Addressing priorities will see acceleration of digital enablement across enterprises: Capco

Capco is a global technology and management consultancy dedicated to the financial services industry. In India Capco employs over700 people across four locations - Bangalore, Pune, Gurgaon and Mumbai - and provides a broad range of business and technology transformation services to its clients around the world. Here, Hiriyanna Kowshika, Partner & Head of India, Capco, tells us more regarding the future of work. Excerpts from an interview:

DQ: How are you dealing with the Covid-19 situation? What plans have you put in place?

Hiriyanna Kowshika: As a matter of policy, we issue laptops to all our employees on induction, so we are effectively automatically configured for remote working in terms of our infrastructure, though sometimes we have to address more complex client connectivity challenges. Our clients have always been very supportive of WFH because our employees continue to interact with them and maintain good visibility ofthe work that is being done.

Ultimately, we are very well-positioned to handle these scenarios and to take the decision to trigger remote working at the right time. Although business continuity planning (BCP) situations are not new for us, and we have dealt with BCP situations at very short notice, sometimes within less than half a day, such situations do not usually run on for multiple weeks. But while the current situation with COVID-19 is ongoing, we were set up for that.

DQ: Are you giving employees more control over their schedules?

Hiriyanna Kowshika: Yes, within the framework of the meeting schedules and the project delivery timetables. At a time when the employees are living under enforced rules across all aspects of their lives, it is very beneficial for theirmental well-being that they can enjoy a degree of autonomy and control in their working lives. Likewise, ensuring that they have time to eat and exercise and to also incorporate some downtime to decompress is key to maintaining their physical health. Those are big priorities for us as we manage our business and support our workforce through this period.

DQ: How are you assessing on learning’s from enforced experiments around WFH?

Hiriyanna Kowshika: Ensuring a steady flow of information and formal communications is absolutely key, and at a much higher volume than would normally be the case. Those should be coming from the company’s senior leadership, Human Resources and department heads or team leaders, and ideally should be done via video calls. Connecting with employeesfar more frequently, staying closely in touch to understand their challenges and concerns will ensure morale, engagement and productivity are maintained.

Clients should be kept regularly updated on deliverables and timelines - as with employees, over-communication is to be encouraged! It is also important to keep stakeholders informed if you are going to be away from your desk for longer periodsduring the day due to the new working environment. Likewise, you should be as flexible as possible in accommodating a larger overlap with the client’s own working hours if necessary. Contingency communication channels should also be agreed for emergency or unplanned discussions – instant messaging apps like WhatsApp or Messenger are ideal for this purpose.

All these elements are key to staying productive and to building confidence around remote working. Longer term, benefits of WFH include being able to access and re-integratetalent that has moved away from the workplace, perhaps, due to the challenges posed by commuting, or the need for childcare! It would in particular benefit women, allowing them to strike a better balance between work and domestic commitments.

DQ: This is a challenging time for managers. What advice would you give them?

Hiriyanna Kowshika: The negative impacts of lockdown and social distancing are clear: less face-to-face team interaction and bonding opportunities, potential boredom, lack of engagement with leadership and wider organizational culture, and reduction in opportunities to learn from colleagues.

Over-communication is to be encouraged. We have also had success with regular bulletin that focuses specifically on tips and advice around physical and mental well-being. We are also running regular virtual employee focus group sessions.Encouraging the employees to stay connected with one otheris also vital, through virtual communities on Microsoft Teams for instance.

We also started weekly 'Chai pe Charcha’ sessions to encourage more relaxed, unstructured chats across team – that type of informal interaction is again invaluable in keeping employees motivated and positive in a remote working environment.

DQ: How does work/life balance work in a crisis like this?

Hiriyanna Kowshika: Access to remote communication toolssuch as Teams, Zoom or Skype means that for many employees their days remain as structured and busy as ever – if not, more so! So, the pressures and tensions around work/life balance have not disappeared. Employers should beencouraging their staff to establish and maintain clear boundaries, whether that involves making a dedicated work area within the home if possible or maintaining regular, contained working hours.

The elimination of the daily commute has been welcomed by many of us, but it’s important not to backfill those extra hours with additional work. It is far better to set aside that additional free time for exercise, meditation or some old-fashioned ‘me time’, or just to spending more quality time with your family.

DQ: What are the policy responses you would give to the MSMEs and SMEs?

Hiriyanna Kowshika: This is clearly a critical time for all businesses. The financial institutions that we work with, are looking to immediately address abrupt changes in the needs and expectations of their clients in this new pandemicmarketplace, and to develop new products or services accordingly. Protecting revenues, managing risk and reducing costs are also more important than ever for them.

In many instances, addressing these priorities will involve an acceleration of digital enablement across the enterprise to allow them to offer new and improved customer experiences and journeys more effectively and cost-efficiently.

Looking further out, this period of change and upheaval presents a unique opportunity for strategic investment to achieve lasting differentiation. It’s a chance to take a step back and reassess existing concepts of ‘business as usual’, with a view to adapting and enhancing capabilities and offerings to establish a sustainable competitive advantage once the ‘new normal’ emerges post-pandemic.

DQ: How are you now facilitating digital work?

Hiriyanna Kowshika: We are already experienced in remote working and have been able to quickly pivot many of our more traditional hosted formats into digital experiences. For our strategy and product development sessions we’ve rethought the formats we use for running that type ofinteractive and collaborative work through a mixture of new ways of working and specific tooling.

DQ: How are the latest technologies going to redefine workplace?

Hiriyanna Kowshika: We have seen a relatively obscurecollaboration and video conferencing tools become mainstream overnight – Zoom, being the perfect example. I’d expect to see a variety of new offerings emerge in the coming months from new and existing players, but the challenge – and Zoom is once again a good example – will be ensuring their robustness in terms of data privacy and security. Looking further forward, a re-imagining of the office environment and the technology within it seems inevitable as firms’ visions for the workforce of the future start to take shape.

DQ: How do you plan for a future of ‘decent digiwork’?

Hiriyanna Kowshika: Dignity, self-respect, security and equal opportunity must be the cornerstones as we look to build the workforce of the future. Digitalization offers a clear route to embedding those values in the enterprise, breaking down physical barriers and constraints around how we engage with our work, colleagues, employers and clients through thecombination of technology and more pervasive remote working.

Built around methodologies such as Agile and Design Thinking that look to simplify and accelerate the iteration and delivery processes within organisations, new ways of working can improve the dynamism and effectiveness of teams, the diversity of the talent within an organisation, and the quality of life and job satisfaction of individual employees - deliverproducts and services that are more personalised, flexible and impactful for customers.

The challenge will be to manage and mitigate potential downsides of a virtual work environment: over-work, stress,isolation, a loss of focus and engagement. Companies will need to rethink how they enable and empower their employees in a distributed work environment, providing them with the right tools and technologies, ensuring clear lines of sight and aligned decision-making across teams, and implementing blended working patterns that match individualand business preferences. A focus on learning and development and personal coaching will be key, likewise a commitment to championing wellbeing and mindfulness.