MAM
Over 50% of corporate India prefers working from home: study
MUMBAI: For many, remote-working is the new norm today as on-ground operations came to a grinding halt due to the Covid2019 pandemic. Buzzinga Digital, a research-first, integrated communications agency, conducted an online research survey in an attempt to understand the behavioral and professional changes the Work From Home (WFH) culture is revealing for India’s workforce.
The pan-India study surveyed close to 500 industry professionals, across the spectrum – IT, SME, automobile, agriculture, telecom, etc. A bulk of the respondents (80 per cent) belong to the 25-44 age bracket with a majority residing in metropolitan cities like Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Delhi NCR, Hyderabad, Chennai, and Kolkata. This insight into the ‘Millennial-Mindset’, during India's largest work from home experiment, reveal –
· 50 per cent are optimistic about working from home and 30 per cent don’t feel any change
· 55 per cent find social-isolation a big hurdle
· 63 per cent said their e-relationship with co-workers is either excellent or very good
· 75 per cent say the biggest motivation to continue to WFH is not commuting
· More than 60 per cent feel they work more hours when working from home
It’s evident that better logistical support from companies, processes, and favorable WFH policies has the power to turn the scales in favor of WFH. This could, however, severely impact the commercial real estate market but save crores in office rental costs for enterprises.
As corporate India stays at home, it has become evident that they were starved of family time with as many as 54 per cent choosing extra family time as another motivator to continue working from home. Having said that, 75 per cent respondents also said they missed face-to-face interactions with colleagues.
The study also tried to get an insight into the post lockdown/post-COVID-19 scenario and when working professionals return to their offices. About 60 per cent said they wouldn’t want to come into the office more than two to three times a week, while 10 per cent categorically stated that they don’t like the idea of going back to an office at all.
When asked if a curfew, as a permanent fixture in the calendar, would be acceptable, almost 70 per cent replied positively with 50 per cent showing a willingness to follow it once a week. A large group of those surveyed cite environmental reasons as a primary reason to accept a curfew – 77.02 per cent believe it’s good for the ecosystem and 61.49 per cent opine that it will reduce our collective carbon footprint.
“The coming months may also see a rise in the number of digital businesses that exclusively operate online. Employers may consider digital literacy and proficiency in tech-based operations important prerequisites for hiring,” said Buzzinga Digital CEO Yashraj Vakil.
Overall, the survey indicates that WFH can potentially be the next big shift in India’s work culture. Companies that have conducted their business in traditional office spaces have been the hardest hit due to lockdown restrictions. However, to avoid a similar fate in the future, these firms are likely to embrace digitisation.
For employees, this may herald a massive change in how they work. As of now, the success of the WFH experiment is a matter of speculation, but time will tell. However, it is our best bet until the Covid2019 pandemic ends and before the lockdown is lifted.
All findings are available to see for free on Buzzinga Digital’s website: https://bit.ly/3dyCqEK
AD Agencies
Abhay Duggal joins JioStar as director of Hindi GEC ad sales
The streaming giant brings in a seasoned revenue hand as the battle for Hindi television advertising heats up
MUMBAI: Abhay Duggal has a new desk, and JioStar has a new weapon. The media and entertainment veteran has joined JioStar as director of entertainment ad sales for Hindi general entertainment channels, adding 17 years of hard-won revenue experience to one of India’s most powerful broadcasting operations.
Duggal is no stranger to big portfolios or bruising markets. Before joining JioStar, he spent a brief stint at Republic World as deputy general manager and north regional head for ad sales. Before that, he put in three years at Enterr10 Television, where he ran the north region for Dangal TV and Dangal 2, two of India’s leading free-to-air Hindi channels. The north alone accounted for more than 50 per cent of total channel revenue on his watch, a number that tends to get attention in any sales meeting.
His longest stint was at Zee Entertainment Enterprises, where he spent over six years rising to associate director of sales. There he commanded the Hindi movies cluster across seven channels, owned more than half of north India’s revenue across flagship properties including Zee TV and &TV, and closed marquee sponsorships across the Indian Premier League, Zee Rishtey Awards and Dance India Dance. He also handled monetisation for the English movies and entertainment cluster and the global news channel WION, a portfolio that would stretch most sales teams twice his size.
Earlier in his career Duggal closed what was then a Rs 3 crore single deal at Reliance Broadcast Network, one of the largest in Indian radio at the time, before that he helped launch and monetise JAINHITS, India’s first HITS-based cable and satellite platform.
His edge, by his own account, lies in marrying data and instinct: translating audience trends, inventory signals and client demands into long-term partnerships built on cost-per-rating-point discipline rather than short-term deal chasing. In a media landscape being reshaped by streaming, fragmented attention and AI-driven advertising, that kind of rigour is increasingly rare and increasingly valuable.
JioStar, which blends the scale of Reliance’s Jio platform with the content firepower of Star, is doubling down on its advertising business at precisely the moment the Hindi GEC market is getting more competitive. Bringing in someone who has spent nearly two decades doing exactly this, across some of India’s most watched channels, is a pointed statement of intent. Duggal has spent his career turning audiences into revenue. JioStar is clearly betting he can do it again, and bigger.
