Institutionalizing Remote Work

Ensuring that working remotely is a viable option for existing as well as potential employees during and after COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has encouraged some firms to seamlessly adopt work from home (WFH) as a temporary, tactical, and cost-saving response to the compulsions of social distancing. For the Indian economy to derive long-term benefits, we need to move beyond accommodating WFH as the “new normal” to a more willing adoption of a comprehensive model of ‘remote work’—as a viable alternative to on-site/office work. What started as a massive social experiment can be institutionalized through a number of firm and national level policy initiatives (e.g., Digital India) leading to new employment models, flexible work arrangements, robust digital platforms, and transformed people-leadership frameworks. This will harness India’s vast human capital in accelerating economic growth. The crisis can, therefore, be used to fast forward the ‘future of work’ by constructing a sustainable eco-system to enable productive work remotely.

This is expected to create a number of associated benefits like:

  • De-congestion of urban clusters by moving jobs to India’s hinterland
  • Reducing enterprise-level overheads on office infrastructure
  • Productive engagement of employees, enabled by flexibility
  • Increased access to hitherto untapped talent, especially women and the underprivileged

 

The projects under this topic will make practical, evidence-based recommendations that will guide and inform firm, industry, and national-level policies for jumpstarting India.

 

Project 1: Organizational Systems and Remote Work

Faculty: Prof. Chandra and Prof. Amit Chuaradia

Scope: This project will include a critical analysis of what are the organization-wide policies and protocol for remote work home and how has the top management been supportive of remote work initiatives.  The analysis will involve a closer look at the general guidelines that outline the organization’s plan for remote work and connection between the organization’s vision and values and its day-to-day operations.

Deliverable: A white paper which outlines a comprehensive plan for organizations who wish to implement remote work in their organizations.  The white paper will include a description of the best practices of remote work from all around the world and guidelines for employers and employees to transition to a remote working model with a focus on new employment contracts and hiring strategies.

Project 2: Compensation  and Productivity Measures for Remote Work

Faculty: Prof. Chandra and Prof. Amit Chuaradia

Scope: This project will include a critical analysis of what is the compensation structure used by organizations to incentivize their employees to work from home. Student teams are expected to provide a detailed analysis of how employee productivity is monitored in a remote working environment.  The discussion should cover different types of reward structures to encourage performance in a remote working environment, strategies to monitor employee performance and maintain employee productivity.

Deliverable: A white paper which outlines a comprehensive guide of compensation practices to encourage organizations to implement remote work.  The white paper will include a description of the best compensation practices and reward structures from all around the world.  The white paper will also cover the negotiation guidelines for employees whose job roles are ready to transition to a remote working model. 

Project 3: Employee Well-Being and Socialization of Remote Workers

Faculty: Prof. Chandra and Prof. Amit Chuaradia

Scope: This project will include a critical analysis of how organizations ensure the emotional well-being of their employees. Student teams will analyze the implications of remote work on mental health and focus on the loss of interaction with colleagues and alternate socialization routines that organizations have to compensate social isolation. The goal is not just identifying the problem of isolation but also suggest evidence-based, scientific, effective and practical coping mechanisms.

Deliverable: A white paper which outlines a comprehensive guide to employee well-being practices for organizations to encouraging adoption of remote work.  The white paper will include a description of the best employee wellness programs from all around the world aimed at helping remote workers.  The white paper will also cover a discussion of coping mechanisms for employees to help them manage effectively manage stress and other problems of social isolation.

Project 4: New Leadership Models and Skills to Manage Remote Workers

Faculty: Prof. Chandra and Prof. Amit Chuaradia

Scope: This project will include a critical analysis of how organizations can structure their teams and organization structure to promote adoption of remote work. Student teams will analyze the formal and informal reporting structures, agility of decision-making and discuss implications of organizational and leadership structures incompatible with a remote working environment. The goal is not just identifying the problem of incompatible organization and leadership structures but also provide effective redesign of organization structure and a study of what of current leadership practices are more suited to on-site/in-office people management and what of that needs change as leaders need to lead remote workers virtually.

Deliverable: A white paper which outlines a comprehensive guide to leadership models and managerial skills required to manage remote workers in organizations encouraging adoption of remote work.  The white paper will include a description of the emerging practices of organizational leadership and managerial skills from around the world that effectively help organization transition to a remote working model.

Project 5: IT Hardware for Remote Work 

Faculty: Prof. Chandra and Prof. Amit Chuaradia

Scope: The changing landscape as suggested a revamping of the entire workplace, in some ways eliminating it altogether as well as creating a dedicated workspace at home. This project will include a critical analysis of how organizations can create new and efficient workspace model for employees while ensuring access to secure desktops or laptops and high-speed connectivity to transition to remote work. Student teams will analyze the inequalities in access to technology and adoption to technology to get on the remote work bandwagon. The goal here is not to recommend that organizations increase their investments in technology but to outline an all-encompassing strategy that makes remote work a level playing field for all. It is expected that the role of governments and industry consortia is analysed to increase access.

Deliverable: A white paper which outlines a comprehensive guide to how organizations can provide equitable access to technology to enable remote work. The white paper will include a description of the best practices of how organizations can bridge the technology inequality from around the world. The discussion will also outline strategies to effectively promote employee technology adoption. It is expected that specific recommendations are evolved to engage with governments at state and center level and the role of industry consortia like NASSCOM may be studied.

Project 6: Software and Cyber Security for Remote Work

Faculty: Prof. Chandra and Prof. Amit Chuaradia

Scope: This project will include a critical analysis of how organizations can create an information governance strategy and employee communication protocols for remote working. The analysis will focus on what are the secure protocols to allow data collection, data storage and data transfer of  critical business  data and what are the mandatory malware and anti-virus or anti-theft protection software that need to be installed to ensure data security when allowing employees to work remotely.

Deliverable: A white paper which outlines a comprehensive analysis of information governance and data security measures taken by organizations. The discussion will also include an analysis of communication protocols and the common set of technology tools for VPN, file sharing, instant messaging, video conferencing and other teleconferencing requirements of an organization.

Project 7 – Broadband and Telecom Infrastructure for Remote Work

Faculty: Prof. Chandra and Prof. Amit Chuaradia

Scope: This project will include a critical analysis of what are the government policies supporting remote work. The important task set out for the government is to set up an robust infrastructure for communications to enable remote engagement. As India accelerates its Digital India mission what policies can state and central government adopt to embrace new ways of digital working and pursue common goals of connectivity and security of data. A specific question to be enquired will be: how can remote work accelerate our digital economy ambitions?

Deliverable: A white paper which outlines a comprehensive guide to how state and central government can create governance policies and build a robust broadband infrastructure to enable remote work. The goal is to not just identify infrastructure requirements to job roles that mend themselves to remote working but also identify new categories of job roles and sectors where government mandated policies can create new jobs. 

Project 8 – Enabling Agricultural Work Remotely

Faculty: Prof. Chandra and Prof. Amit Chuaradia

Scope: Student teams are encouraged to explore sectors that can adopt to remote work by automating their operations using robotics, AI and IoT. The scenario is not to create a completely remotely controlled environment but an exploration of how technology can aid more sectors to adopt to remote work by focusing on the three dimensions of work, workforce and workplace. Under this topic the students are focusing on enabling remote work in agriculture, the various aspects of the value chain starting with the farmer to the end-customer are studied and systems that are adaptable to remote work are identified.

Deliverable: A white paper which outlines the comprehensive guide evaluating what aspects of the agricultural value chain can be brought under remote work. The analysis will include an  in-depth analysis of the existing technology in the agricultural value chain and suggestions for what areas can be improved to add more value and benefits to the farmers.

Project 9 – Decongesting Urban Concentration through Remote Work

Faculty: Prof. Chandra and Prof. Amit Chuaradia

Scope: This project will include a critical analysis of what are approaches through which remote work can help decongest urban cities. The expectation is to conduct a detailed investigation of the magnitude, causes and associated economic costs  of  urban congestion (traffic, migration, availability of affordable housing) and provide potential solutions in terms of how the quality of life and the economy can benefit from urban decongestion. Simultaneously, it will be important to investigate if reverse migration of work away from urban centres to rural and semi-urban areas will lead to the growth of rural economy.

Deliverable: A white paper which outlines a comprehensive guide to how urban cities can decongest and benefit from remote work. The analysis will include what are the best practices or benchmarks from cities around the world that have adopted remote work.

Project 10 – Remote Work and Work-Life Balance for Women, Minorities and Underprivileged 

Faculty: Prof. Chandra and Prof. Amit Chuaradia

Scope: This project will include a critical analysis of what factors contribute to achieving a work-life balance, organizational guidelines allowing flexi-schedules, flexible work arrangements for women, minorities and underprivileged and if creating an environment of a good work-life balance means better employee productivity.

Deliverable: A white paper which outlines a comprehensive analysis of how organizations can promote physical, emotional and mental well-being by focusing on separation between work and nonwork lives of its employees rather than concentrate on creating a harmonious work-life balance. The analysis will include an observation of organizational culture to overwork, organizational narratives around balancing the demands of one's career and the demands of one's personal life and a review of the best practices from organizations around the world.