Firms can save money on office space rents, as employees need to travel less.
New Delhi: The aviation, hospitality and real estate sectors could face even harder times in a post-Covid world, as the world’s biggest experiment of work from home (WFH) could be the new normal in such a world.
As organisations and companies are forced to take to the WFH culture and their experiments with virtual meetings and virtual office set-ups become a success in the first leg of the lockdown, companies are mulling over the decision as it involves less travel. Some companies may make the work from home culture a permanent feature.
Organisations believe that this new normal would help companies save lakhs of rupees every year, as rents for their office spaces would reduce and employees would have to make minimum travel in the near future.
Heads of leading corporations like Axis Bank, RPG group, Vedanta, Cognizant, EY, Deloitte, Whirlpool, Paytm, and Titan are deliberating as to how this new normal could be effectively implemented in these organisations in the near future.
A senior official from Paytm told this newspaper, “A lot of the backend team does not have to meet on a regular basis and their work can easily be done from home as we are seeing right now; this may be implemented in the near future. Why should people go to office when they can do the same work from their homes? This way, the company also gets to save a lot of money.” On the condition of anonymity, an official from a private sector bank told this correspondent, “We are already in discussion mode as to how we can divert a lot of our staff to take to work from home as the new culture and normal. For example, the customer care team and backend processing team can work from home, as they do not have to meet customers on a daily basis.” Even big corporates who are currently working from home and even holding their international conferences and meetings over video-conferencing think that this could change the way India or perhaps the world would meet following the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Meetings and deals could be finalised and worked out even on video calls and today, we have the technology to even hold online conferences. We have realised this potential in the past 21 days, so why would companies invest thousands of dollars for their team to travel in business class and put them up in a five-star hotel? All unnecessary travel would be cut down and this would save thousands and thousands for companies each year,” a senior official from Mahindra told The Sunday Guardian. Such measures could come as shock to the hospitality and aviation sectors which are reeling under the heat of this global pandemic. The global aviation industry, which is expected to lose about $314 billion as revenues in this year alone, could further see a dip if companies stop or lower their travel plans. The hospitality and tourism sector, which is staring at a loss of about $22 billion dollars, could further see a cut if corporates reduce their travel.
The realty sector, which was expected to boom in the coming months, has also been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic and further down, companies and big corporates choosing work from home as the new alternative, could come as a big blow to this sector.
A hospitality sector expert, who is keeping a close watch on the development, said, “The government needs to give a fiscal stimulus to these sectors; else many are going to just die. This crisis is one of the biggest faced by the human civilisation. We shouldn’t be surprised if in the coming days, we see many airlines shutting shops and many hotels and the hospitality sector going bankrupt.”
As organisations and companies are forced to take to the WFH culture and their experiments with virtual meetings and virtual office set-ups become a success in the first leg of the lockdown, companies are mulling over the decision as it involves less travel. Some companies may make the work from home culture a permanent feature.
Organisations believe that this new normal would help companies save lakhs of rupees every year, as rents for their office spaces would reduce and employees would have to make minimum travel in the near future.
Heads of leading corporations like Axis Bank, RPG group, Vedanta, Cognizant, EY, Deloitte, Whirlpool, Paytm, and Titan are deliberating as to how this new normal could be effectively implemented in these organisations in the near future.
A senior official from Paytm told this newspaper, “A lot of the backend team does not have to meet on a regular basis and their work can easily be done from home as we are seeing right now; this may be implemented in the near future. Why should people go to office when they can do the same work from their homes? This way, the company also gets to save a lot of money.” On the condition of anonymity, an official from a private sector bank told this correspondent, “We are already in discussion mode as to how we can divert a lot of our staff to take to work from home as the new culture and normal. For example, the customer care team and backend processing team can work from home, as they do not have to meet customers on a daily basis.” Even big corporates who are currently working from home and even holding their international conferences and meetings over video-conferencing think that this could change the way India or perhaps the world would meet following the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Meetings and deals could be finalised and worked out even on video calls and today, we have the technology to even hold online conferences. We have realised this potential in the past 21 days, so why would companies invest thousands of dollars for their team to travel in business class and put them up in a five-star hotel? All unnecessary travel would be cut down and this would save thousands and thousands for companies each year,” a senior official from Mahindra told The Sunday Guardian. Such measures could come as shock to the hospitality and aviation sectors which are reeling under the heat of this global pandemic. The global aviation industry, which is expected to lose about $314 billion as revenues in this year alone, could further see a dip if companies stop or lower their travel plans. The hospitality and tourism sector, which is staring at a loss of about $22 billion dollars, could further see a cut if corporates reduce their travel.
The realty sector, which was expected to boom in the coming months, has also been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic and further down, companies and big corporates choosing work from home as the new alternative, could come as a big blow to this sector.
A hospitality sector expert, who is keeping a close watch on the development, said, “The government needs to give a fiscal stimulus to these sectors; else many are going to just die. This crisis is one of the biggest faced by the human civilisation. We shouldn’t be surprised if in the coming days, we see many airlines shutting shops and many hotels and the hospitality sector going bankrupt.”
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