I was in a recent brainstorming session and one of the participants Sunil quipped that "Today, Geography is History". The Covid-19 pandemic imposed remote work on employees worldwide in a matter of days. Human ingenuity went into overdrive to enable employees across the world become productive and efficient in their work. While multiple businesses were unfortunate and had to shut shop, new businesses around collaboration and employee engagement sprung up and became successful.
The biggest revolution was witnessed in the area of human resources. One myth that was shattered and challenged every seasoned professional's belief was that the pandemic will limit our ability to hire great talent. Ironically, hiring talent has taken a dramatic turn. Today's talent is not restricted by physical space or location constraints. It has become inevitable for companies to open up permanent remote roles. There is a true appreciation of talent where everyone has an equal chance to work for any organization across the world. This is the first time it has become possible to be anywhere in the world and work for any company. People are staying in their home towns/cities and working for companies in other cities, states or even countries. Geography has truly become a thing of the past, it is now History !
However, there is a downside to this dramatic turn. The culture of organizations is eroding as you cannot embrace it in the four walls of your home. Employees are not bonding or developing a sense of belonging with the culture of the organization. This is going to lead to attrition and employees moving companies without having to move out of the comfort of their home offices. This can be a great opportunity to hire talent but in the same breath it can also be a great deterrent to retain talent that truly matters.
Key Takeaway: There are always two sides of the story and in this case you cannot just align with the talent availability side of the story.
Very true, geography is not a boundary any more, remove work has evolved from few in organization to many to even elementary school. A new dynamics that can propel the growth at enormous level. What we are going to miss is comradery and friendship, some places employees have joined during pandemic, never made it to office and met colleague at work place and now moving to another organization.. never saw that coming!