9 out of 10 biz leaders in India open to job sharing possibilities for staff: LinkedIn

At least 9 out of 10 business leaders in India plan to or have offered job sharing possibilities to their employees, while 80% business leaders feel pressured to provide greater flexibility at work, according to a report by LinkedIn.

The ‘Future of Work’ report that took in inputs from 736 business leaders in India in September 2021, showed that 58% of employees, 41% of managers and 37% of the government opted for flexible work options.     

78% of the Indian respondents are ok to have the employee work from another country, or are planning to do so.  

Surprisingly, India leads the Asia Pacific region in terms of offering flexible solutions. In the APAC region, only 68% of APAC leaders want to offer job shares, while only 58% are ok with employees working in a different country.   

“Nearly 9 in 10 leaders in India have hired specialists to design stronger workplace policies, to re-evaluate everything from L&D opportunities to performance reviews and career progression through a new lens — one that puts people first and not location,” said Ashutosh Gupta, India Country Manager, LinkedIn.  

However, deploying modern workplace flexible policies In India comes with its own challenges with 37% respondents saying it leads to lesser collaboration between employees, 39% said there is a potential for substandard quality of work, while 36% felt it dents customer experiences.   

Indian leaders however, are confident than their APAC peers about leading a distributed workforce, with 83% of them saying they are confident of the scenario, as compared to only 66% in the rest of APAC.     

Additionally, 93% of Indians believe that younger employees are the key to business success, and the flexible aspect has made it easier for companies to hire the best talent in the country. 45% of business leaders believe that the modern workplace atmosphere allows for a diverse mix of candidates, and 49% said it makes finding talent with modern skills easier.