Covid-19 pandemic and Work from home as the new paradigm of human resource management for digital India

Abstract

Work from Home (WFH) as a concept of Human Resource Management has been relatively new to Indian corporate culture and confined to comparatively few business sectors. In recent times and with the unfortunate backlash of the Covid-19 pandemic, almost all businesses and workplaces were forced to adopt this concept of ‘work from home’ as the only alternative to keep the employees productive and functional to whatever extent possible. This paper seeks to look at the concept of work from home as a new paradigm and preference under the sub-heads of Employee Efficiency and Perceived Productivity; Environmental Effects; Socio-Demographic Changes and Employer Factors. The methodology will be to obtain feedback from the current workforce about existing perceptions on these specific areas. Each group of individuals’ feedbacks will be collated and analysed to see the perceptions between females vs. males; senior management vs. junior management; those with and without commitments at home; their income brackets, etc. The outcome of the study aims to corroborate if the concept of Work from Home can be effectively accepted and utilized to boost valuable human resources and prove beneficial to both employers and employees of a rapidly transforming digital India.