In the past four months, organisations of all sizes and sectors have seen a tremendous shift in the business landscape, and have been adopting various remote working practices to ensure the continuity of their operations.

In this new dynamic, efficiency, speed, and cost-effectiveness are given top priority. Which is why organisations are implementing new technologies to work virtually, stay agile, automate workflows, and communicate and collaborate in real-time.

To gather perspective on the new dynamics that come with remote working and how technology is a key catalyst in this change, YourStory presented ‘The New Order of Work’ webinar powered by Lenovo on August 6, 2020. The panelists, which had a special focus on Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs), gave their insights on the adoption of collaborative tools, the importance of cybersecurity in the times of COVID-19 and much more.

The panel was moderated by Dipti Nair, Editor-at-Large, YourStory and consisted of industry leaders Ashish Sikka, Director – Channel and SMB, Lenovo India; Chung G Tham, Executive Director, GDS Assurance, EY; Udaya Bhaskar Vemulapati, CEO, Flujo; and Vivek Ramachandran, Founder, Pentester Academy.

The need to meet ever-evolving customer expectations

Ashish began the discussion by noting that it is important, more than ever, to be customer-centric given that customer expectations have changed since the onset of the pandemic.

”We must keep ever-evolving and tailor-make our solutions to meet customer and channel needs,” he said, citing an example.

Given the limited IT support in offices, Lenovo has been providing customers with devices that are pre-loaded with all the necessary tools to enable collaboration and productivity.

Lenovo has also been helping its channel partners and customers with cash flow challenges through financing provided by Lenovo Financial Services, its finance arm. It has also been providing one-year leases, renting, and buyback offers on its product for both its customers and channel partners.

Embracing the new order of work

Chung from EY said that the company has been working towards creating a flexible working environment since the past two years, and technology has been a key enabler. It has moved most of its tools to the cloud, and linked its systems with their clients to gather data. He also noted that there has been a significant rise in the adoption of digital tools, particularly in banking and insurance sectors where signing documents, meetings and other key functions are taking place virtually.

“In terms of a silver lining, it has turned the non-believers of outsourcing to believers, and also helped reduce the carbon footprint,” he said.The new challenges to security

Vivek from Pentester Academy said that the secrecy of conversations and that of data are two key challenges to security for organisations. He explained that the shift to collaboration tools also uncovered the uncertainty around the privacy of these conversations, “We are unable to extend that perimeter of trust of these tools to our homes,” he said.

Vivek also pointed out that since employees had been working from their home with their own devices, shoulder-surfing and exposure to malicious links had increased the threat of compromising data.

“Hackers are having a field day since the perimeter of the organisation has reached individual homes,” adding that they have been capitalising on the fear and uncertainty around the COVID-19 pandemic, as observed with the rise of spear-phishing emails centred around COVID-19 updates.A cultural change

Udaya from Flujo said that in their experience, the largest barrier to adoption of communication and collaboration tools like Flujo is not from a cost, but a cultural standpoint.

“Traditional SMBs find even communication to be a step up,” he said, adding that while top management and executive-level employees of SMBs are convinced in implementing tools like Flujo, it is middle management that often hesitates to adopt such tools.

Udaya also added that productivity from remote working also depended on an organisation’s culture, an individual’s culture, how self-driven each individual is, and the ability of a manager to properly measure and give feedback on the contribution of every individual. ”We need to find solutions that can fill gaps in these personnel, culture and HR-related issues before we can say a final goodbye to working out of offices,” he said.

Empowering SMBs with the right tools and devices

Ashish from Lenovo said that while SMBs must adopt technology to increase their productivity, they must also ensure that the devices they work on can be kept secure from data breaches and malicious attacks.

To that end, he mentioned that Lenovo’s devices are geared for this task. Its Thinkpad series come with camera shutter, port disablement features, hard disk and software encryption, and Lenovo ThinkShield, which secures the device with the help of third-party security providers, among others.

Best practices for enhancing remote working productivity

Chung mentioned that working with clients from countries that have strict data privacy laws like the US and those from the European Union meant that EY has always been keeping data privacy as a priority, particularly with personally identifiable information. It has been ensuring compliance with steps like double-factor authentication, end-to-end encryption, among other practices.

He also added that challenges such as system failures have been handled by using tools to access work systems remotely through home systems. On the people front, the company has been encouraging employees to be more physically active by exploring activities like chair yoga. “We are social beings, and so it is necessary for people to interact with each other,” he said, adding that to help employees cope with the mental stress from a lack of such interaction, the company has also set up hotlines for the same.

Vivek said that the main hurdle to securing operations is that security is always perceived as an overhead.

“The challenge has always been building security into the functionality of the product without having the user be aware of what he should do to secure the product,” he said, and he encourages his clients.to try to adopt tools and products where the security is seamless.

In cases where it is not possible, he suggests investing in educating employees about easy to implement best practices so that they should be reasonably secured while working from home.

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Original Source: yourstory.com

The coronavirus outbreak has not only brought about a global health threat but is also crippling the economy. Several organisations, factories, and businesses are unable to operate normally, forced to cut down their costs by deducting salaries and/or reducing their employee strength. 

According to media reports, 27 million workers within 20-30 lost their jobs in April 2020 amidst national lockdown. 

Paytm is looking to hire more than 1,000 tech and non-tech roles and 50 key senior-level hires. [Image Credit: Shutterstock]

Also ReadHiring in India picks up pace during April to June: LinkedIn

However, Noida-based fintech unicorn Paytm is looking to hire people for 1,000 positions within the next two to three months. Apart from this, the company is also looking to bring in over 50 key senior-level hires for vice president and above positions for tech and business roles.

Speaking with YourStory, Rohit Thakur, Chief Human Resource Officer, Paytm, says, “The ongoing global pandemic has not impacted our hiring plans and we have continued with our interviews, as well as inductions of new joinees through WFH mode even during the lockdown. We believe the hiring process would be complete in the next two to three months.”Growth and expansion amidst crisis

According to Rohit, Paytm and its other group businesses — lending, insurance, wealth management, and offline payments — have been expanding operations, creating the need to hire people for both tech and non-tech roles. 

“This team expansion would play an essential role in launching innovative financial services and technology to fuel Paytm’s growth journey and digitally serve the residents of the country in the troubled times of COVID 2019,” he adds. 

Paytm is not only building solutions to survive and sustain its business amidst the pandemic but is also aiming to empower the citizens to deal with the crisis. Riding on the accelerated digitisation wave, the fintech unicorn claims to have grown by 35 percent combining offline and online transactions, while its Gross Transaction Value (GTV) has grown by 50 percent over the last few months. 

The company’s offline merchant transactions and P2P transactions have increased by 122 percent and 50 percent, respectively amidst the pandemic situation. 

The fear of contacting COVID-19 through currency notes has forced people to shift to online transactions. Transactions through Paytm Payments Gateway have also increased, especially for gaming, OTT, and essential services. 

Paytm and its other group businesses have been expanding operations thus creating the need to hire people. [Image Credit: Shutterstock]

Also ReadHow Paytm’s Rs 250 Cr ESOP policy will help the fintech giant drive growthEnsuring wellbeing, financial security of employees

To ensure the physical and mental wellbeing and financial security of the employees, the fintech unicorn made efforts to not opt for salary cuts or layoffs. This also ensured that employees gave their undivided attention towards innovating new solutions rather than worrying about their jobs.

“We have cut down on a lot of overhead costs, streamlined our operations and real estate, and managed to save on resources in other areas. We have ensured that all levels and categories of staff remain safe, motivated, and energised as earlier with minimal impact,” says Rohit.

The company is giving up leases of 19 facilities across the country that can help Paytm save over Rs 40 crore yearly in rent, maintenance, and other operating expenses. According to Paytm, this money will be utilised for tech development, employee, and other initiatives. 

Further, to maintain the productivity of the employees, senior managers and team leads try to stay connected with teammates and support them in completing their daily tasks. The company has also joined hands with professionals to organise mental health webinars, online yoga classes, and other workshops to ensure the health of its employees.

“Every week our founder [Vijay Shekhar Sharma] addresses a video-townhall meet with a large number of colleagues to keep everyone informed about all the latest developments in the company. Throughout the week, the HR touches base with various teams to hear out their concerns and address any work-related issues that they might have,” he adds.

When asked about the appraisal plans, Rohit reveals that Paytm is looking to opt for an ESOP-based appraisal plan, which will be applicable for all the new joinees and existing employees, who were given ESOPs 2019 onwards. This new process has been linked with individual goals, which are reviewed and approved by the HoD or business head.

“Linking it to the performance of our colleagues helps us get the best out of them and also sets the benchmark for goal setting. We follow a point-based performance structure that is transparent and done purely on the basis of achieving the set goals and targets. The higher the points scored in each assessment, the more percentage of ESOPs the employee gets allocated,” he says.

New business opportunities 

Paytm has launched several new products and services such as Paytm Postpaid, Scan to Order, contactless ticketing service, COVID-19 insurance, Recharge Saathi programme, credit shell for flight tickets, and free cancellation of bus tickets, among others. 

“Early on, we understood that social distancing norms and safety measures would have a lasting impact on the movement of migrant workers across the country. Things that they were able to do earlier, including standing in a queue to pay utility bills, going for shopping, and even touching currency notes would become difficult. Keeping all these things in mind, our team worked dedicatedly to revamp the Paytm app UI with a ‘Stay at home essential payments’ section to include Mobile and DTH Recharge, electricity, water, gas, credit card, and insurance premium payment among others,” Rohit says.

This offering led to over 50 percent increase in mobile recharges, 60 percent increase in DTH payments, and over 200 percent increase in broadband bill payments, claims the company.

To cater to the growing need for contactless services, the fintech unicorn launched the ‘Scan to Order’ feature to promote safe dining and hygienic food ordering experience. It also developed a unique QR to be displayed at restaurants, which can be scanned by users to browse the menu and place orders using their mobile phones. 

Paytm also launched a contactless ticketing service for state-run local transport buses, which will benefit state transport corporations such as DTC, BEST, Punjab Roadways, CTU, OSRTC, and KSRTC, among others.

“We are already in talks with 20 state transport departments to ensure that citizens are able to travel safely within cities following all social distancing norms. We are targeting to enable a contactless ticket-buying experience in over 20,000 state-run busses in the first phase of going live with this service,” adds Rohit.

He adds that a deep understanding of user needs, along with the capability to develop innovative solutions helped the company find new opportunities during these turbulent times.

(Edited by Saheli Sen Gupta)

Want to make your startup journey smooth? YS Education brings a comprehensive Funding Course, where you also get a chance to pitch your business plan to top investors. Click here to know more.

Original Source: yourstory.com