Founded in 2000 and following the work-from-home model way before the pandemic, AntMyErp has created a benchmark for work-life balance and employee happiness in the business landscape. The latest in a long line of policy changes in the company’s work culture is the introduction of a 4-days-a-week WFH policy from April 2022.
“The only way to maximize workplace productivity while simultaneously increasing employee drive is to think from their perspective and create a balance between responsibility and replenishment. By allowing our employees to work 4 days a week and 8 hours a day from home, we give them the time they need with their family and for personal development. This, in turn, improves their drive and focus, which helps them plan better, work with more ferocity, be more productive, and yield better outcomes for the company—all in just 32 hours a week.” Arvind Didwania, the founder and CEO of AntMyErp shared his insights into the concept the company takes to work policies.
At first, the company’s introduction of work-from-home was seen as an unorthodox move. Before 2019, most companies believed that the only way to work was to sit in the corporate office, use the systems assigned by the company, and handle all tasks with a mix of cloud and on-premise systems. Especially in India, such a move by an IT service provider—companies well-known for needing advanced tools and on-premise security—was pretty much unprecedented on such a scale. While people pondered if this strategy will do more harm than good, AntMyErp was making frameworks to ensure their employees could accomplish from their systems at home what others did sitting in front of million-dollar equipment in the office. With WFH, one challenge was to ensure employee availability and high productivity, as AntMyErp insisted on cutting the culture of working beyond 8 hours a day—something that has become a toxic norm in the industry.
On the other end of the spectrum, the WFH model was met with suspicion and confusion by a lot of employees who were seeing it for the first time. Most employees were reluctant to believe it—and the ones who started were unsure of how long this model could last.
As the pandemic struck the business landscape, most enterprises fast-tracked their digital transformation initiatives, adopting cloud technologies and almost making the shift to WFH and hybrid work models overnight. This led to employee churn, lost revenue, operational slowdowns, unprecedented disruptions, downtime, and a wide range of complications. AntMyErp, however, was already working with the WFH model and by this time, had perfected it. With a strong technology stack and stronger managerial policies in place, AntMyErp was able to excel amid this new norm.
The WFH model has also done wonders for the company’s resource pool and talent acquisition functions. With a reputation for facilitating work-life balance and a history of low employee churn, AntMyERP enjoys a good position on the market when it comes to employee sentiment.
With the recently implemented 4-days work week, Arvind noted, “AntMyERP has helped employees be more productive at work, improve their planning skills, master time management, and spend more time with their loved ones. We have created a culture where employees can be happy and find the time they need to nurture their personal life. And this is what we are most proud of.”
He adds, “Most companies struggle for months on end to get the right resources they need. Yet, because of our flexible, fair work policies, we were able to do so in just one week. This is a clear indication of the growing trend for work-life balance in the marketplace. This is what employees want,” he concludes.
“We have been scaling every quarter and recently, we did a post on LinkedIn which was aimed at filling some open positions. The post mentioned our perpetual WFH model and a 4-day, 32-hour work week. The response was overwhelming, to say the least. We got nearly 2 million views and received nearly 7000 resumes in a matter of a week. We ended up recruiting quickly and building a team in a matter of just 7 days.” He also added, “This proves there is a strong latent need towards a 4-day work week and we foresee this to be the future standard industry model.”
Moving forward, the company has a bigger goal in mind, leveraging WFH to make a bigger impact on not just the business landscape, but the nation’s economy as well. Arvind states that “by the year 2024, AntMyERP wants to have anywhere between 70%-80% of their manpower working from rural parts of the country, spending at least 50% of their time in these parts. What this will do is, create a good environment for the rural areas, infuse more cash flow in these parts of the nation, and give rural India an economic boost.”
Moving from building a better work culture to building a better economy, AntMyERP’s visionary approach is inspiring countless startups and SMEs across the nation to build toward a brighter future.
