2021 – How does it look like?

I plan to discuss a series of trends that look promising in 2021 and beyond under this topic…

On-Line Education:

The plethora of on-line educational sites, aggressively endorsed by celebrity actors of Bollywood ( though difficult to fathom why they need to do it) on TV channels makes one wonders whether they are targeted at school going children or arm chair elders who spend more time in front of TV. In any case this is what everyone is lapping up either to become a young SW coder or pick up some new skills and get some brownie points in their year end appraisal chart. While on -line education per se is a new way of getting you up to date, what is difficult to swallow is the fact that there is nothing in offer for youngsters to learn something new apart from their academic curriculum. But for the likes of Kinder Garden going children to school & college going students, it may be a convenient way of learning, some subjects of study are even tailored to their needs, what is sadly missing is the fun element of interacting with their friends and teachers to get to know stuff beyond their subjects of study.

While it is understood that on-line coaching is different than on-line education, the former being primarily aimed at improving the scores in competitive exams, the latter is more like a substitute to a class room study, organised by educational institutions as an additional way for academically weaker students to become better at school exams.

There is no denying of the fact that the business opportunity for both types of education is tremendous and start ups are apparently enlisting more people and hence this business opportunity holds a lot of promise from a commercial venture point of view. You will see more money being pumped in here both by start-up companies and educational institutes / Universities and there is absolutely no regulation on the quality of education that is being taught. Parents or people opting for on-line education must be their own judges of the contents, the methodology of delivery and the capability of coaches/teachers.

#onlineeducation

#start-ups

#2021trends

Managing People, post COVID by Organisations

HR is one of the most evolved functions today and in successful organisations HR has been a driving force across all streams of organization’s functions.

The expanding roles in HR function post Covid era are being discussed but don’t you feel what you already have is sufficient. New roles like Diversity Officer may be pertinent for a multi lingual, multi national work force but cannot understand roles like Ethics Officer, Workplace architect, Well-being Officer, Officer for Human Bias etc. They sound extravagant to say the least as the core HR & IR function is expected to take into cognisance the facets of these sub-functions.

It is beneficial to have a Psychiatrist or Psychologist to cover the individual’s well being , conflicts between co-workers, the gender relationships, the adjustment needs of working with multiple ethnic groups, the impact of organisational hierarchy and changes in physical work environments ( WFH) besides the mental equilibrium of work force during a crisis. The constantly changing skill needs in the work place put enormous pressure on employees and they are forced to balance their time to deliver their work and at the same time push them to enhance their competency / skill levels. Their mental equilibrium both on and off the office is being challenged when family is also involved and this is where a Talk Therapy becomes helpful. The inputs for talk therapy come out of appraisal feedback that has parameters to evaluate the soft skills, Competency levels or the attitudes of an employee. Hence an appraisal methodology has to be comprehensive to include the assessment parameters for such a talk therapy.

Some large organisations do employ a Professional Counsellor but the need is a wider adaptation of this role to help develop individuals and sustain excellence in work place. I always believe that a Manager is the best person to be a counsellor rather than an outsider and it is essential that he/she needs to be coached by a professional as well to be able to absorb the learnings and mentor or counsel his/her team members. The manager knows the organization’s DNA, he or she knows the best method of counseling that suits the team.

Welcome 2021

2020
We need to put an Iron clad sheet to its face, bid good bye and not look back. It has taken the lives of many, a few of them were our near and dear ones. But it has refined and redefined our thinking in multiple ways:

* We care more for our family, our job, our friends and our well being.
* Materialistic progress is important but not at the cost of happiness of our loved ones.
* The purpose of life is to live it like there is no tomorrow and to spread positivity all around us.

Welcome to a year of renewed hope and fulfilment of our good intentions and desires.

SEASON’S GREETINGS &
HAPPY NEW YEAR!

COVID Economy – Intriguing !

We assume economic hiccups always teach lessons to corporates and governments but in reality it is hardly so. We had witnessed a massive financial melt-down in 2008 due to sub-prime mortgage crisis but what I hear is that this event did not force industry and government to tighten the controls and they were back to their merry go-around until this pandemic struck.

While it was a man made disaster in 2008 primarily in US, the present catastrophic situation is much larger in spread and has a lasting impact in the way we do business, run the organisations making us more risk averse and customer centric. The intriguing factor is why the capital markets in major and developing economies are still surging, when people are facing hardships, unemployment. Developing nations and those in the cusp of development receive huge sums of money and this in turn help their economies and try to put more money in people’s hands. This is all good, as long as they don’t drive themselves aggressively towards a debt driven economy. we have seen countries doing that in the past and they are now in precarious state so much so that their people are trying to migrate to a better surviving condition.

The next decade is going to be interesting and the lessons that we have learnt over the last 9-10 months have made us more resilient and resolute to shape up our priorities over how far we need to be indulgent in materialistic pursuits as opposed to healthy, contented and happy life style. It is what, as people, we need to determine and certainly not our Government or other countries.

COVID Vaccine is the single most technological and biological invention in a shortest span of time and we are all blessed that the cure is just weeks’ away. This would not have been possible if the priorities by people and governments all over the world were any different. Our wish is that the same focus and a single minded obsession is extended to other vital areas that need pulse checks – Hunger, Climate Change, Better Living Index, Shaping up Good our next generation, Better Governance and above all the WILL to be “People Friendly” and a Model state.