{"id":213999,"date":"2026-01-01T00:19:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T00:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/213999\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T00:19:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T00:19:09","slug":"why-flexibility-will-win-the-talent-war-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/213999\/","title":{"rendered":"Why flexibility will win the talent war in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the new year opens, one workplace truth is loud and clear: flexibility is here to stay. <\/p>\n

After a post-Covid return-to-office push, companies are recalibrating in 2026 \u2013 shifting from attendance policing to outcome-led work design to attract and retain talent amid a scarcity of skilled professionals, rising burnout and global competition for skills. <\/p>\n

The demand for flexibility cuts across generations, markets and job levels, HR heads and workforce experts said.
Hybrid-by-design roles, fluid workdays<\/a> and ultraflex models are on the rise as employers increasingly accept that work cannot be run on attendance alone, they said, as research bears out that flexibility boosts workplace effectiveness. <\/p>\n

\u201cBetween 2023 and 2025, many companies treated return-to-office as a compliance exercise, linking presence to performance and career progression,\u201d said Nitin Bhatt, technology sector leader at EY-India. \u201cIn 2026, expect a recalibration as leaders shift from enforcing attendance to engineering outcomes.\u201d <\/p>\n

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This change will be driven by three forces, he said.
First, digital talent scarcity, with India Inc facing a widening gap in AI and data-related roles. Second, productivity evidence: EY\u2019s 2025 Work Reimagined survey of 15,000 employees and 1,500 employers across 29 markets showed organisations with flexible models report stronger productivity than those with rigid mandates. <\/p>\n

Third, trust and retention: flexibility is now a critical \u2018total reward\u2019, with 22% of employees prioritising work-from-anywhere and 30% prioritising flexible schedules when choosing an employer. <\/p>\n

Prashant Mehra, chief people and culture officer at professional services firm Grant Thornton Bharat, said employees now are far more vocal about their expectations. While younger generations often spotlight flexibility as a baseline expectation, autonomy resonates across all generations, he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cPeople of all ages value the freedom to control how, when, and where they work. For some, it\u2019s about balancing caregiving responsibilities; for others, avoiding long commutes or pursuing personal passions,\u201d Mehra said. <\/p>\n

\u201cAcross sectors not tied to physical presence, most organisations are embracing a hybrid rhythm, typically two to three days in the office, with the rest remote. A one-size-fits-all, cookie-cutter approach, regardless of the size of an organisation, is clearly pass\u00e9,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

Hybrid models evolving; rise of fluid workdays
The concept of fluid workdays is also gaining ground, where the traditional nine-to-five workday gives way to outcome-based schedules, whether in terms of location, hours, or even formats such as a four-day working week. Organisations adopting this approach empower people to own their time while maintaining collaboration and client delivery. <\/p>\n

\u201cFlexibility is no longer a demographic differentiator, it is becoming a baseline expectation for a resilient and future-ready workforce,\u201d said Mansee Singhal, careers leader, India, at consulting firm Mercer. \u201cRather than a fixed formula, organisations are likely to settle into a hybrid-by-design approach, where presence is determined by work outcomes, collaboration needs, and skill application.\u201d <\/p>\n

Industries such as technology, professional services, financial services, and knowledge-driven roles are likely to remain at the forefront as digital workflows, skills-based roles, and project-based delivery, make them more conducive to hybrid models. <\/p>\n

However, even traditionally on-site industries are exploring partial flexibility through role redesign and AI-enabled work models, rather than a binary remote-versus-office approach, Singhal said.<\/p>\n

Organisation-speak:
Companies say that flexibility supports inclusion, engagement and long-term career sustainability. <\/p>\n

\u201cAt Godrej Capital, we see flexibility as a way to build an inclusive, high-performance organisation,\u201d its chief HR officer Bhavya Mishra said. \u201cFlexible work will remain integral to how we operate in 2026, with more deliberate, individual-based design. The conversation should move beyond policy to culture.\u201d <\/p>\n

Fluid workdays will also see a rise, especially in outcome-oriented roles, she said. However, this model succeeds only when organisations invest in strong people managers, continuous skill development and clear goal-setting, she added. <\/p>\n

At Axis Bank<\/a>, where 27% of employees currently work in alternate formats and over 2,500 work virtually, head-HR Rajkamal Vempati said the data tells a consistent story: giving employees more agency over how they work unlocks higher engagement, faster growth, and stronger retention. <\/p>\n

Axis data shows that virtual employees show higher promotion rates; while reduced commuting friction, better focus windows, and self-managed schedules translate into higher productivity. The percentage of high performers among virtual employees is higher. Flexibility also broadens access to location-agnostic talent and boosts internal mobility. <\/p>\n

\u201cFlexibility at Axis Bank\u2014anchored by GIG-A-Opportunities\u2014has moved from experiment to edge. It enables us to build for performance, design for well-being, and hire for potential\u2014no longer constrained by location or schedules,\u201d Vempati said. <\/p>\n

Overall, experts think flexibility will increasingly define workplace competitiveness in the new year. And companies that fail to adapt risk losing top talent.<\/p>\n

Add \"ET as a Reliable and Trusted News Source<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the new year opens, one workplace truth is loud and clear: flexibility is here to stay. After…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":214000,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[118984,45536,114,184,15350,118979,118977,118980,118982,118978,85,46,118981,118983,8985],"class_list":{"0":"post-213999","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-ai-in-workforce-management","9":"tag-axis-bank","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-economy","12":"tag-employee-engagement","13":"tag-employee-retention-strategies","14":"tag-flexibility-in-the-workplace","15":"tag-fluid-workdays","16":"tag-future-of-work-2026","17":"tag-hybrid-work-models","18":"tag-il","19":"tag-israel","20":"tag-outcome-based-work-design","21":"tag-talent-attraction-and-retention","22":"tag-work-life-balance"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}