Corporate India recognises need for flexibility, skilled-based workforce: Study

A significant percentage of organisations understand the current skills and development needs of their employees and are providing access to upskilling or reskilling opportunities to all employees, the Mercers 2023 Global Talent Trends study has found.

Mercer, which conducts a comprehensive Global Talent Trends study, factoring in inputs from Chief Experience Officers (CXOs), HR leaders, experts, and employees, has found that 64 per cent of companies surveyed offer flexible work options for all employees and 54 per cent of organizations have total well-being initiatives.

As many as 124 HR leaders participated in the pulse survey, representing approximately 8,00,000 employees across technology, auto, manufacturing, professional and financial services sectors.

Despite battling with challenges like inflation, recession and tight labour market concerns, 45 per cent of the companies in India are redesigning work with employee well-being in mind such as realistic workload, no-meeting days, and positive work environment, said Shanthi Naresh, Partner at Mercer Career India.

During the survey, 93 per cent of the respondents said they focused on how their benefit offerings can help in supporting employee attraction, retention and engagement in 2023.
Furthermore, it is seen that the majority of the companies in India are currently providing support for employees’ mental health and establishing innovations to help address health conditions including 21 per cent of them investing in new health and risk protection programmes for the organisation.

Another important aspect for companies in India to focus on and progress, is flexibility at the workplace as employees are now greatly valuing the ability to work from anywhere.

It has emerged as the number one reason for employees to willingly forgo a raise, the study said.

An upward trend post-pandemic has been observed in respect to supporting flexible workforces (expats, digital nomads among others), with 62 per cent of organisations indicating that they are supporting the needs of their mobile workforce better.

“In an economically challenging situation, if organisations are looking for ways to identify non-monetary drivers that can engage and retain employees, then investing in supporting flexible workforces certainly seems to be an area of opportunity,” Shanthi Naresh added.

(With inputs from agencies)