Challenge

I am an HR manager part of a team responsible for policy and strategy in my organization. Our  organization (about 7000 employees) did not have a work from home (WFH) policy before the  COVID-19 pandemic forced us to close our Corporate Headquarters. Our HR team was tasked to  prepare a WFH policy keeping in mind all pros and cons. The policy required the collection of  opinion from stakeholders such as employees at all levels, top management and customers who were  regular visitors to the office. The important aspect was to get the daily work done through a policy  that allowed virtual means of communication through structured rules of WFH to ensure business  continuity and smooth customer experience. This required close coordination between all the  departments of our organization including our IT team.

Selection

The approach consisted of three phases i.e. Phase I: developing a questionnaire for obtaining  responses of stakeholders; Phase II:  formulation of a draft policy based on responses and best  practices followed by other organizations and, Phase III: testing the draft policy amongst a small  random group of employees. We selected the learning launch tool to quickly test the actual  implementation issues related to the proposed policy. Moreover, this tool was best suited under the  difficult circumstances of the pandemic.

Application

After formulation of the policy and obtaining nod (from the Director-HR) for conducting the learning  launch of the WFH policy, our team conducted a series of mock sessions by engaging employees of  different departments. The draft policy was distributed in advance to the participants and the online  meetings were held during office hours with specific agendas. During the mock sessions some real  issues were discussed and probable solutions were arrived at. The sessions were conducted within the  rules of the draft WFH policy. This allowed the testing of the policy objectives and the real issues  faced by the employees while working from home. Feedback from the participants were recorded  after each session on various issues such as ease of work, connectivity, infrastructure and WFH  etiquette.

Insight

The feedback obtained from the mock WFH sessions was interesting. On the positive side the  employees opined that they had adapted to the WFH experience and had the infrastructure and  internet connectivity to complete their tasks. They also expressed that there was better work life  balance and productivity. On the negative side they said that the lack of face to face human interaction  was unbearable beyond a certain period and they preferred to be physically present in the office. It  emerged that employees were comfortable with WFH working arrangement for not more than 45 days  in a year. Moreover, difficulty in reading the body language during meetings was expressed as a gap  in WFH. This need for face to face human interaction was an important insight through the learning  launch which was not considered while formulating the policy draft.

Approach

The important insights gained from the preliminary learning launch will be used to prepare the final  WFH policy through a cross functional team. The policy should therefore incorporate a mix of WFH  and need for being physically present in the office. Some more learning launch sessions will be held  to understand the customer interface. The results of the learning launch experience will be shared with  top management for the formulation of an employee focussed WFH policy for successful  implementation in our organization. After formally implementing the policy, the storytelling tool can  be used as an alternate approach to understand policy implementation and improvement.

