Will pandemic shape future workplace?
THE workplace and modes of working have come into the spotlight amid Covid-19 lockdowns that have enforced remote working as the new norm for most businesses.
Companies have had to review their practices to accommodate a hybrid-approach which allows employees to spend some time in the office to create social work experiences.
Research suggests that the pandemic could also shape other future workplace trends. Two trends stand out: the rise in telework and virtual collaboration on the one hand and the increasing divide between formal and informal work on the other.
The Covid-19 pandemic has reminded us about the great divide between “them” and “us”, inequalities, and exploitation in informal workplaces. The dire reality of unemployment is a major challenge. Joblessness is exacerbated by the use of the informal sector as a shock absorber.
The contractual labour market has shown a steady growth over the past decade. This casualisation of work can have positive and negative consequences. In South Africa, which has a long tradition of work casualisation, the effect has not always been positive as some workers have been victimised and exploited.
They have also not been provided with basic provisions, including personal protective equipment, to enable them to do their jobs. On the other hand, trends like the rise of the gig economy, flexible labour and self-employment form a significant part of the developing economy.
Workers in the formal sectors, for example, had more support from their organisations during the lockdown. Employers helped facilitate arrangements for working from home. Informal sector workers had no such support. Most workers in developing countries, including South Africa, aren’t part of the formal employment labour force. They work in the informal sectors, and are often referred to as casual labour in precarious jobs.
The lockdown has demonstrated to organisations that remote work, which is enabled by technology, is not only possible but also efficient. More companies are creating opportunities for working remotely.
The spike in casualisation could also potentially help flip the paradigm and stimulate a new direction on how to ensure meaningful work for all. If leaders and people practitioners can evolve the best people practices deployed in the formal sector to also serve the informal economy, it may open new avenues in stimulating economic and life empowerment.
This calls for applying standards on human dignity in work, as articulated by international labour organisations and country labour laws, to how all people in the work cycle are treated.
This could be done by large employers holding their service providers accountable to ensure workers have the minimum standards in wages and benefits in place, and are treated with dignity and respect.
A large proportion of organisations deploy service providers or casual labour, to deliver parts of their business processes.
Organisational leaders should thus consider all workers in their operational value chain, formal and informal, through a humanitarian lens. In so doing, contracting, and outsourcing, along the value chain could include principal stipulations on minimal accepted people practices. Work in general serves a greater purpose than just earning an income, but can also provide meaning and purpose, social connection, status and structure.