TJInsite - Workplace Flexibility

VOLUME-III | ISSUE 12 

NOVEMBER 2013 

H I R I N G & B E Y O N D 

www.content.timesjobs.com

HIRING & BEYOND 

www.content.timesjobs.com 


NOVEMBER ISSUE 

Cover Story 

IndIa Inc embraces 

workplace flexIbIlIty 

According to a recently concluded study by TimesJobs.com, about 

60 per cent of Indian organisations claim to have a formal policy for 

workplace flexibility. The flexible workplace debate has been raging 

for many years, and different studies have shown the benefit of these 

policies for employer and employees alike. 

Strengthening the connect 

According to diversity experts, offering 

flexible work schedules builds a sense of 

belongingness among employees. It is said to 

improve efficiency and loyalty towards the 

organisation, thus boosts business output. 

Jatin Desai, CEO, The DeSai Group, USA & 

Innovation Management Expert, says, 

“Flexible workplace policies improve 

employee engagement scores. Improved 

engagement scores lead to enhanced 

organisational productivity and profits.” He 

added that in India the flexibility trend may 

be gaining momentum but in other parts of 

the world the trend has slowed down. “In 

India, there is still a huge benefit to 

promoting this policy in certain types of 

sectors and organisations,” he said. 

Changing market forces and influx of 

technology in every sphere of work are few 

of the major reasons behind the growth of 

flexible work options in India Inc. 

Countering challenges 

According to the TimesJobs.com survey 

results, while almost all major industry 

segments are providing flexibility options to 

its employees, in some way or the other, for 

about 40 per cent of the organisations, the 

trend is still evolving. Of those 

organisations that don’t have a formal 

flexibility policy, 40 per cent are unsure 

about adopting one or more flexible work 

arrangements in the near future. 

Desai adds that this could be because 

organizations fear that working in different 

locations could hamper innovation at the 

workplace. “In our research, it has been 

Three key steps to ensure that the 

flexibility option is not misused by 

employees: 

Trust: Having faith in your employees 

is the key. Trust that that your staff is 

professional and will not misuse the 

flexi-work policy. Most employees will 

work harder and put in hard work when 

they are trusted by their direct manger. 

Train: Training employees to 

leverage maximum benefit from flexible 

work schedules is as important as 

training managers to manage remote 

employees carefully. 

Target: Benchmark assessment. 

Ensure that performances are evaluated 

based on the work done and not by the 

hours spent doing the work. 

(Derived from inputs shared by experts across 

industry verticals) 

proven that innovation is a social art. 

Without team interaction, innovations do 

not happen. Best ideas come to people when 

they work in a team, face to face. Often best 

ideas occur accidently and not in a formal 

setting. Therefore, it is very hard to 

inculcate the culture of innovation when 

employees work in isolation,” he 

articulated. 

Sans the cons 

Minus the associated downsides of 

workplace flexibility, industry experts 

believe that offering flexibility is indeed 

 

 

2 

beneficial for both the employee and the 

employer. They opined that offering flexible 

work schedules help curb attrition and also 

adds to the employer brand. 

Quoting a Regus Study Madhur Ramani, cofounder 

and managing partner, Stratum 

Consulting said, “According to the study, 

majority of senior managers and business 

owners globally report a direct link between 

flexible working practices and improved 

productivity (72%).” He added that many 

businesses have come to the consensus that 

work flexibility keeps the employees’ 

motivated and results in better productivity, 

reducing work stress and frustration levels. 

Future is flexible 

Experts added that being flexible creates an 

environment where employers and 

employees can have a balanced approach to 

work and personal needs, which is mutually 

beneficial. According to the TimesJobs.com 

study, close to 60 per cent of organisations 

surveyed are likely to implement more 

flexibility options, in the near future. 

Devarajan Duraibabu, COO of Disha 

communications believes that workplace 

flexibility is a step in the right direction and 

a no-brainer for progressive organisations. 

“It is undoubtedly, a smart strategy to retain 

employees and attract talent, and I would 

rate it right at the top of all EEPs (employee 

engagement programmes),” he said. 

According to a Regus September 2013 report, 

by 2015, the world’s mobile worker 

population will reach 1.3 billion, 

representing 37.2 per cent of the total 

workforce, concluded Ramani.





Highlights 

Both genders use flexibility options equally 

A 

ccording to a recent TimesJobs.com survey, about 

90 per cent organisations offer not more than three 

types of flexibility programs to its employees, at a 

time. Part-time schedules and flexi-time are the most 

widely offered flexible work arrangements across sectors. 

Close to 40 per cent organisations offer these programs to 

its employees. A combination of programs tailored to fit 

employee’s needs are offered by 16 per cent of the 

organisations. 

According to 40 per cent of the surveyed organisations, 

part-time schedules (with or without benefits) and Flexitime 

(flexible start/stop times) are also the most used 

flexibility options by the employees. As for gender, nearly 

40 per cent of the organisations revealed that frequency of 

usage of flexibility options is equal among male and 

female employees in their organisation. This, in a way, 

repudiates the myth that female employees seek more 

flexibility options than their male counterparts. 

Which of the following 

flexibility programs are 

most frequently used by 

the employees in your 

organisation? 

Part-time schedules 

(with or without benefits) 

Flexi-time (flexible start/stop times) 

Combination of programs tailored 

to fit employee’s needs 

Telework full-time (every regularly 

scheduled work day) 

Telework on a regular monthly 

basis (at least one day per month) 

Obstacles to implementation 

any organisations have 

successfully built a culture of 

Mflexibility, overcoming the 

associated challenges. However, there are 

still some who are finding solutions to the 

problems linked with workplace flexibility. 

According to 40 per cent of the surveyed 

organisations, resistance from top 

management/managers/supervisors is the 

primary obstacle to adoption and 

implementation of flexible work 

arrangements. 

Exercising control over the employees 

using flexibility options is another major 

concern to implement such programs. For 

25 per cent employers, lack of control is 

the key obstacle. An equal percentage 

ccording to the survey, over 

70 per cent organisations stated 

Athat there has been no impact of 

slowdown on its flexibility programs. 

Infact, many employers feel that flexible 

work arrangements are a good way to save 

cost during such uncertain times. The 

programs help organisations to retain 

employees at a reduced workload while 

waiting for the economy to recover. 

Many organisations encourage its 

employees to choose flexible work 

voted for lack of jobs that are conducive to 

flexible work arrangements as the key 

challenge in embracing flexi-work policies. 

For certain organisations and job profiles 

it is not possible to have flexible work 

options in place. They need to have the 

regular, day to day exchanges with the 

employees. 

Nearly 10 per cent of the organisations 

stated lack of interest on employees part 

to be the key hindrance in offering 

flexibility options, revealed the survey. 

However, according to industry experts, 

though there are challenges in planning 

and implementing flexibility work 

schedules, the benefits tend to outweigh 

the impediments. 

No major effect of slowdown 

arrangements. However, there are few 

organisations that have been prompted to 

re-evaluate their workplace flexibility 

options because of the discouraging 

economic conditions and poor business 

sentiments. 

Nearly 15 per cent of the surveyed 

organisation agreed that slowdown has 

indeed forced them to modify some 

flexibility options. About 12 per cent 

stated to have removed some or all of the 

flexi-work schedules. 

 

 

 

3





Guest Column 

Deepika Pillai, Human Resource Director, Xavient India 

Deepika Pillai is the Human Resource 

Director at Xavient Information 

Systems. With overall 12 years of work 

experience and specialisation, she is 

responsible for the overall functioning 

of Human Resource for Xavient India 

and Sri Lanka. Furthermore, she is 

accountable for the front ending and 

partnering with the delivery leaders to 

achieve corporate objectives, employee 

retention, people development and 

implementation of employee HR Life 

Cycle processes. 

Workplace flexibility: A win-win for both 

employer and employee 

Workplace flexibility has been viewed as benefiting both the employer and the employee. While there are few 

barriers to implementing workplace flexibility policy, the benefits seem to outweigh the downsides. 

The phenomenon 

Workplace flexibility is indeed becoming a 

practice amongst most corporate these days. 

It facilitates the business and employees/ 

individual’s needs to be fulfilled by 

accommodating changes in time, location 

and the way an employee works. It is very 

critical factor to help and achieve the 

desired employee engagement levels. 

With the nature of work which is 

demanding and requires extended working 

hours sometimes, working over weekends 

etc it has become the need of the hour to 

ensure employees stay motivated. It should 

be reciprocally advantageous and should 

yield higher outcomes. 

With the availability of formal and/or 

informal flexibility available as per the 

organisation’s policies, employees most 

desire to have variable schedules, flexible 

holiday calendar, flexible breaks as and 

when required and surety that having a 

flexible work schedule will not hamper their 

growth in the organisation. 

The benefits 

The quality of work and work satisfaction of 

employees, both are of utmost importance. 

Providing flexibility at workplace is a winwin 

for both employer and employee. 

For employees, factors like having a weekly 

attendance tracking model helps to ensure 

that they are given the space to decide their 

working hours based on the nature of work 

and client requirements. So it is not a 

mandate to complete 9 hours each day if one 

is doing extended hours, so long as they 

complete the expected 45 hours in a week it 

works for us. It helps business as they are 

able to support client requirements by 

providing everyone this flexibility. 

The hitch 

The primary disadvantage of any policy is 

the misuse. The misuse of the flexibility 

provided and after situations where one may 

not be sure if the employee will be available 

when required due to the flexible 

arrangements provided is one of the key 

disadvantages. Furthermore, there could be 

complicated situations in projects if they 

would not be monitored well due to flexible 

work arrangements. At Xavient, most of the 

projects follow a certain schedule and the 

managers have access to various reports 

through which this can be monitored, we 

are able to avoid such situations. 

The control 

Policies which fulfill both the employer and 

the employee’s desires are the ones which 

are successful. One of the key steps to avoid 

the misuse of such policies is by having 

systems and reports to monitor the 

functionality. 

Secondly, it is important to give ownership 

to managers so they ensure that team 

follows a defined schedule as per client 

requirements and not just individual 

schedules. Creating awareness amongst 

employees can be the vital measure, so they 

consider this as a benefit for themselves and 

not misuse it. 

The worth 

It is categorically one of the key components 

of employee engagement strategy. The 

workforce flexibility helps in maintain 

pressure free ambiance and further assists 

in retaining employees. With this policy, 

organisations can witness increased 

employee morale and commitment, reduced 

absenteeism, increased retention rate and 

higher commitment levels and allowing 

employees to work as per business needs 

and in turn supports our client as well. 

 

 

 

4





Social Chatter 

Workplace flexibility: Need or necessity? 

Businesses’ primary benefit from 

workspace flexibility in terms of 

time saved of their people. And, time 

is money. Besides, as long as one 

puts in his/her 8-9 hours of work, 

from wherever he/she is, it 

shouldn’t matter to the company. 

But, it matters hugely to the 

employee – they save the drudgery of 

the commute, get more time for 

other activities, and can work from 

the comfort of their home. 

Miten Parekh 

CEO & Director 

Klarity Technoconsult Pvt Ltd 

Social 

Media 

Chatter 

According to me this situation 

is over hyped because in a country 

like India people tend to get 

influenced very easily and start 

misusing the powers of flexibility 

which they have been offered. 

Secondly, when one top performer 

from the team enjoys flexibility, it 

tends to affect the performance of 

other members in the team. Either 

they start working as hard as the 

top employee is doing or they will 

zero down there performance 

level due to jealousy. 

Rajesh Nair 

CEO 

Top Gear Consulting 

Flexible workplace makes people feel 

valued, which leads to peak performance. 

The key is to be flexible and collaborative 

with hours and location. It is not 

necessary that an employee will work 

efficiently if he/she is in office, giving 

them an opportunity to work with 

customise work-life fit, it shows that you 

are not imposing anything on them. 

These all activities benefit the business 

and the employees. 

Tarun Bansal 

Managing Director 

Blue Pigeon Image 

Management 

Trust is the key in effective 

implementation of flexi work 

options. An organisations need 

to understand and believe that 

when an employee decides to 

work from home, they are indeed 

making a serious commitment to 

the organisation. This builds 

enormous loyalty and trust and 

also aids in building a superior 

workplace culture. 

ML Srivastava 

Senior VP 

non-profit organisation 

Being flexible is the need of 

the hour. It is good for the 

current business 

environment and work 

culture. While, on one hand 

such policies help build 

employee trust and 

commitment, it also helps to 

attract potential talent. 

Organisations need to think 

of effective ways to drive and 

manage such programs. 

Prabhu N 

Innovative trainer & organisational 

behaviourist and developer 

5





Delhi Meet 

Freshers are the life line of the industry 

Y 

et another thoughtprovoking 

chapter of 

‘TimesJobs 

Conversations’, a boardroom 

discussion was held in Delhi in 

association with Manav Rachna 

International University, on 25th 

of October 2013. The event 

focused on The Campus Code 

2013: Decoding the ‘New Age’ 

Strategies. It aimed at 

strengthening the industryacademia 

connect and providing 

a platform where the needs, 

challenges and solutions of both 

– the industry and the academic 

institutions can be explored and 

discussed. The panelists in this 

event included, Ruchi Bhalla, 

VP HR, Pitney Bowes, Satish 

Nair, India Staffing Manager, 

Freescale Semiconductor India, 

Sandyp Bhattacharya, Senior 

VP & Head HR, Mahindra 

Comviva, Amaresh Singh, 

Country HR Director, Alstom, 

Manish Singh, Head HR, Haier 

India, Maj Gen Amarjit Singh 

Bakshi, Director CRC, Manav 

Rachna International 

University. 

The session was moderated by 

E Jayashree Kurup, Content 

Head, Times Group. She 

initiated the discussion by 

highlighting the fact that though 

campus recruitment has been 

widely acknowledged by 

orgaisations as one of the 

highly effective hiring channel, 

there are associated challenges. 

She affirmed that the event aims 

to find solutions to those 

challenges and it has indeed 

able to evolve few meaningful 

answers to the problems. 

Highlighting the challenges 

faced by their organisation, 

Ruchi Bhalla, VP HR, Pitney 

Bowes, stated, “While quantity 

and quality of talent remains a 

challenge, the bigger challenge 

is employability. 

According to Manish Singh, 

Head HR, Haier India, “Quantity 

and quality can be met, the 

challenge lies with finding the 

right talent within the available 

cost/budget.” He stated that 

while it is easy to benchmark in 

terms of product and market 

share, it is way too difficult 

when it comes to people. 

Satish Nair, India Staffing 

Manager, Freescale 

Semiconductor India, believes 

that quality of talent is a big 

challenge. “We are working with 

futuristic technologies, and 

things are changing quite 

rapidly, so the need is to have a 

futuristic and skilled workforce, 

and that posses a big challenge.” 

Sandyp Bhattacharya, Senior 

VP & Head HR, Mahindra 

Comviva, also believes that 

6 

since the world is evolving so 

fast, the talent requirement is 

also changing. “The need is to 

think differently and out-of-the 

box, without changing the 

system.” 

Highlighting the requirements 

of the industry, Amaresh 

Singh, Country HR Director, 

Alstom, said, “The level of skills 

anticipated from engineers, 

graduating from top 

engineering colleges is below 

expectations. It has remained 

very traditional for many years 

now. The need is thus, to focus 

on investing in technology, 

training and knowledge transfer 

and building the required 

attitude and personalities.” 

Talking about skills, Bhalla of 

Pitney Bowes highlighted that 

the problem is not with 

technical skills but with softer 

skills. “Technical skills are 

there, what is missing, is the 

people skills. The society at 

large has to be blamed for this, 

as we raise our children to be 

complacent.” 

She added that the need is to 

encourage out-of-box thinking 

and originality, right from 

childhood and parents, 

academic institutions are the 

key stakeholders in this. 

Agreeing to Bhalla, 

Bhattacharya of Mahindra 

Comviva stated that 

interpersonal skills are strong 

indicator of the fitment of the 

prospective hire. 

Talking about the assessment 

process followed by his 

organisation, Nair of Freescale 

Semiconductor India said that 

we have written examinations 

(objective type, multiple choice 

questions), wherein we assess 

the acumen of the candidate to 

do various things. 

He also underlined the 

importance of internships. He 

asserted that university hiring 

is very prominent and useful 

tool to fill vacancies at the base. 

Talking on behalf of the 

academia, Maj Gen Amarjit 

Singh Bakshi, Director CRC, 

Manav Rachna International 

University, highlighted that 

internships are a very 

important and effective means 

to groom and enhance the 

employability quotient of fresh 

graduates. 

He called for a more exhaustive 

and comprehensive talent 

search in institutions other than 

Tier I. 

Experts present at the event 

unanimously agreed that going 

forward a better structure can 

be of adopting institutions. 

Wherein, an organisation adopts 

a university/college/institute 

but it doesn’t necessarily imply 

hiring from that institution 

alone or hiring at all. 

Singh of Alstom articulated, 

“Industries should adopt 

institutions, but with a clause 

that they are not bound to hire 

from that institute. However, the 

level of interaction is different 

and more intense, including, 

exchange programs, company 

visits, guest lectures and other 

such connects and dialogues.” 

Experts were also of the opinion 

that Gen Y has to be dealt with 

quite differently. Since they 

don’t work by too much rules 

and regulations, a better way is 

to hire them for the right job, to 

retain them for long.





7



‘Strong policy framework needed to build a 

culture of flexibility’ 

Hema Mohandas 

Director- HR, Chennai Advanced Technology Centre (ATC) , Virtusa Corporation 



Expert Speak 

Hema Mohandas is Head of HR, for the Chennai & Pune Centre 

for Virtusa, a well-known information technology services 

provider with a global reach. She possesses more than 20 years 

of experience in HR which includes business partnering 

including mergers & acquisitions, business integration and 

employee engagement. In earlier stints, Hema was with Alcatel 

Lucent as Director – Talent Management & Organisation 

Development. She has also worked with companies like NIIT, 

HCL & Polaris. Hema comes with strong domain experience in 

the areas of talent management and employee engagement, 

focusing in identifying leadership talent, coaching high 

potential employees & promoting people manager capabilities. 

With her Masters in PMIR & HR, she has also been certified as a 

coach by Personnel Decision International (PDI) for 360 degree 

feedback & by Korn & Ferry for Learning Agility Coaching. 

Studies and researches support the 

positive outcomes of workplace 

flexibility. What hold back organisations 

to embed such policies in their work 

culture? 

We need to understand that there is a very 

thin line between employee friendly policy 

and business priorities. The element of 

flexibility arises because of certain 

constraints. The rigidity in flexibility arises 

when organisations are not able to govern 

the framework properly and there is lack of 

maturity in terms of policies and system. 

Also, sometimes businesses don’t have the 

technology in place to support, implement 

and manage flexibility options. 

What are the key tools that support 

workplace flexibility? 

Manager-employee relationship is very 

crucial to this; it has to be mature in terms 

of setting a clear perception of whether the 

employee works for you or works with you. 

If everything has to be governed by data and 

operationally monitored than the charm of 

flexibility becomes sour. There has to be a 

good review mechanism. There are certain 

pockets such as global roles which call for 

flexibility rather than day to day exchanges. 

In those cases, a solid management system 

can help ease the process and aid in 

delivering desired results for both employee 

and company. Another important thing is 

infrastructure which includes the element 

of privacy. As compared to overseas 

markets, in India the context of privacy is 

not that mature. Thus, managing official 

work from home becomes a little difficult as 

there are lot of distractions. Also, one needs 

proper infrastructure in place, in terms of 

tools and technology to perform tasks and 

operate efficiently from home. 

How has the workforce expectations 

related to flexibility changed during the 

last five years? 

The workplace environment, around the 

world has changed significantly, in recent 

times and so is the notion of flexibility. 

When the concept of flexibility was settling 

down, it was more perceived as of 

something by which you can get to work 

from home. Now it is more situational and 

individualistic, as in, if somebody asks for 

any sort of flexibility there is a reason to it. 

Depending on the reason, the organisation 

assesses and grants the best option available 

to the employee. For example, extended 

maternity leaves and sabbaticals for higher 

education, organisations do approve such 

requests on a case-to-case basis. 

What can we learn from organisations 

that have supported workplace 

flexibility? 

In terms of positives, flexibility is one of the 

key talent strategies. It is an effective 

process to attract and retain good talent. If 

properly crystallised and incubated, it can 

reap immense benefits for organisations. In 

terms of adversities, in organisations where 

it is not institutionalised in the right way, 

people tend to take advantage of it and 

misuse it. While they ignore to be a part of 

the events taking place in the core office 

hours, they are actually missing out on 

many crucial career opportunities. The 

whole essence of having a flexibility culture 

will only suffice if there are proper policies 

and frameworks to regulate it. This will also 

help in avoiding the unhappy scenarios of 

controlling and managing the attendance of 

employees. 

What advice do you give to today’s 

workforce who is seeking flexible 

options? 

The workforce should know that flexibility 

offered to them at the workplace is indeed a 

very strong tool. If they leverage its benefits 

properly and in the right way it can reap 

immense benefits for both employers and 

employees. The managers, HR team, 

business partners have a huge role to play in 

this regard. They should communicate and 

help the employees set priorities and be 

responsible and use the option judiciously 

and don’t take undue advantage of it. If 

things are managed properly and employees 

are righteous in their attitude and approach, 

workplace flexibility can do an awesome job 

for both the organisation and its people. It is 

indeed a very powerful tool to manage and 

retain talent. 

Disclaimer: Information provided in this newsletter shall not be reproduced, published, re-sold or otherwise distributed in 

any medium without the prior written permission of TimesJobs.com and a clear acknowledgement to TimesJobs.com. 

Contact: TJinsite, TimesJobs.com, Plot No 6, Sector 16A, Film City, Noida. Write in to editorial.timesjobs@gmail.com 

Copyright ©2013 Times Business Solutions Limited. All rights reserved.

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