Survey Overview
Frequent headlines today include – ‘Economy suffers unprecedented collapse’, ‘Adverse business impact due to the pandemic’ etc. In this difficult and confusing situation, Companies are trying to figure out the answers to many questions and take decisions that are in the best interest of the organization and its employees.
As the situation continues to unravel itself, WalkWater sought the perspectives of and data from CEOs and HR Heads, on what they are thinking/ doing on various topics related to the impact of this pandemic.
Pulse Survey intended to understand ‘How are Companies managing the current situation & the Way forward’ covered questions around Communication & Engagement with Employees, Returning to Normal, the New Normal and the Impact on People & Business. The survey was conducted between 28th and 30th April, hence provides an updated perspective from the participants. A total of 152 companies spread across Sectors and major cities in India participated in the Survey. We also spoke to few of the respondents to understand their response in more detail. The results of the Survey are outlined in this Report.
We would like to thank all the Business and HR Leaders for their quick response, data and perspectives. We are sure that the data and analysis of the Survey will also help you understand your own position vis-à-vis India Inc. We wish all clients, participants of the survey and readers a quick recovery and growth going forward.
Breakup of Respondents
Survey | Key Highlights
Communication and Engagement
- About 97% of the companies have got into a communication overdrive where almost 50% are speaking to their team on daily basis. This level of communication has never been seen before.
- L&D has become the most important tool of engagement.
- Townhall including families, virtual yoga, quiz, contests and fitness sessions are other interesting things happening online to keep everyone engaged.
Returning to Normal
- Almost 80% of the companies expect to get back to normal working with 75%+ attendance within 4 months of completion of lockdown. Clearly, India Inc want to put the current situation behind as fast as possible.
- Therefore, 90% of the companies have already started preparing the plan to start functioning normal. SOP documents are being put in place.
- Overall, even though there is optimism of a quick return to normalcy, there is still a reasonable level of uncertainty on actual time to return to normalcy. The normal has changed.
New Normal
- Given the overall positive impact, about 56% of companies are open to allow more people to work from home or with more flexibility in future and about 36% of the companies opted for ‘May be’.
- Almost 63% of the companies are seeing same or higher level of productivity while only 21% feel that the productivity levels have dropped. Drop in productivity is certainly true for companies that are highly dependent on field force of any kind.
- While overall positive impact is visible, a set of companies are still undecided due to practical issues and availability of right tools for them. It would be interesting to track this metric in future months to see the real impact of work from home on productivity levels.
Overall, in words of a senior HR Leader, “it clearly looks like that in future, work will go to talent and not talent to work”.
Impact on People and Business
Reduction in Workforce
- • More than half of the companies don’t expect reduction in workforce. This is certainly an important learning from the Survey.
- With 44% of the companies saying Yes/May be to workforce reduction, need for expanding the workforce for Indian economy has gone to backburner for a significant number of companies.
- The functions which are likely to be most affected and will see reduction in hiring/ job losses are – Support functions, Sales and Operations in that order. This means increase in the availability of talent for these functions.
Leadership Hiring
- Almost 50% of the companies are confident of resuming key hiring within 6 months.
- Only 1/3rd of the companies seem to be thinking about key hiring after 9 months, many of which are also already well staffed at leadership levels.
Impact on Business
- It is to be noted that a high percentage (75%) of the companies feel that the business will start expanding within 6-12 months.
- Barring 25% of the companies, India Inc is overall confident of re-starting the cycle of expansion within this FY. We believe that despite concerns around the situation, this is a heartening news, and, is indicative of positivity and strong desire to move forward.
Communication & Engagement
Returning to Normal
New Normal
Impact on People & Business
About WalkWater Talent Advisors
WalkWater Talent Advisors has emerged as one of the Best Executive Search Firms in India. The WalkWater team brings a unique mix of strengths – Intensive Client Partnering, Deep Domain Knowledge and Global Coverage; this coupled with a start-up drive to excel, and a constant focus on values, provides an unparalleled experience to our clients.
Headquartered in Bangalore, the Company has offices in Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Gurgaon and Cupertino, US. WalkWater is also a part of Access Search Partners (ASP), a global partnership of specialised executive Search firms across major global markets thus helping companies build teams across India, rest of Asia-Pacific, North America and European markets.
WalkWater has successful track record across sectors – Technology; Consumer and Retail; Industrial; Pharma, Healthcare & Lifesciences; and BFSI. Apart from assisting 275+ companies hire 600+ leaders, WalkWater has also completed 40+ bespoke Talent Advisory engagements for established organizations and start-ups.
Survey Disclaimer
This summary report has been prepared for general guidance on matters of interest only and does not constitute professional advice. You should not act upon the information contained in this report without obtaining specific professional advice. No representation or warranty (express or implied) is given as to the accuracy or completeness of the information contained in this report, and, to the extent permitted by law. The Covid situation is unravelling itself each day, hence we believe that the decisions by companies will also undergo change as per the need of time.