Maintaining social distancing is essential for working in any social space in the post-COVID world. Paul Dupuis, MD, and CEO, Randstad India shares his thoughts on the changing work environment, suggestions, and much more at the recently concluded Randstad Leadership Dialogues by BW People.

As the need to maintain compliance with social distancing norms stands vivid, arguably, office spaces may be slowly but steadily losing their sheen as a crucible of productivity. With the number of Covid cases skyrocketing, particularly in the metro cities, corporations and authorities around the world have no other option but to provide flexible working conditions including work-from-home, until the pandemic crisis abates. 

Paul Dupuis, MD & CEO, Randstad India and Author of 'The E5 Movement' has said that in the current situation workspaces may be limited to activities that involve a get-together. “Several large and global corporations are reducing their footprints significantly. One company announced that it is reducing one million square feet in India. The assumption is that the office spaces are not as important as it was before the Covid-19 pandemic hit.” 

Instead, Dupuis said: “What we now know is we are moving towards a hybrid way of working i.e. working from anywhere, which will become more and more normal and acceptable." He explained, "An office becomes less important as a place to do work. I believe the offices would be redesigned and repurposed as a place to collaborate and celebrate.”

He was speaking at the recent virtual Randstad Leadership Dialogues by BW People in association with Randstad India and BW Businessworld on the theme ‘Reimagining Work, Workplace and Workforce’. 

Dupuis said India is 'always in the spotlight' when it comes to engagement activities. “I have had over 500 face-to-face meetings since March, all virtual of course. All leaders shifted into (a plan of) ‘Let’s protect ourselves and our people immediately’. We looked at how we could manage, and the engagement activity turned out to be remarkable, I must say.” “Everything from launching a radio station to Zumba or Yoga happened with incredible creativity in India,” Dupuis said. 

Dupuis has had a long stint in Asia and has drawn his learnings on leadership from diverse cultures. He is bilingual, speaking both English and Japanese, and has lived and worked across Asia for more than 25 years. Dupuis is responsible for leading Randstad India’s operations, overseeing multiple locations across India. 

About the ‘Safely Back To Work – Best Practices Handbook’ curated by The India Alliance and spearheaded by Randstad India, Dupuis said, “In April 2020, the idea was born with Randstad and Mckinsey jointly developing protocols based on the best practices across the globe. The best practices and protocols in this handbook cover all the major industries in India.” The book is being well received by the government and companies, who are looking forward to that critical moment when to allow people to come back to the workforce, he added.

One of the conclusions from the handbook, he said, is how to ensure clean zones in an office? What we cannot control is what happens between Point A and Point B? he said. So, one of the recommendations, said Dupuis is how can one control the 'A-to-B' portion of the challenge and not just the workplace, he pointed out.

Link to Download The Safely Back To Work – Best Practices Handbook: https://bit.ly/3l6vKT4

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