The coronavirus pandemic changed the dynamics of the work culture. Thousands of companies around the world had to opt for work from home and for most companies that has been the case since March 2020.?
During?Covid-19, the transition to working from home was extremely fast for a lot of companies. But, it has been over 18 months now since the pandemic happened and employees and employers have gotten a hold of this work from the home scene.?
There are many Indian companies that are still allowing work from home and seems like they will be continuing it for a while but some IT majors are preparing to bring employees back to the office. This after cases Covid-19 have steadily declined and the majority of employees have been vaccinated. Leading IT companies like TCS, Wipro and Apple follow the hybrid model of 2-3 Days Work From Office and 2-3 Day Work From Home while other companies let their employees choose whether they come to the office or continue work from home.?
IT giant Infosys, which has 2.6 lakh employees, is planning to call back to the office while keeping the threat of the third wave of the pandemic in mind. The safety of the staff at the office will be given high priority in the wake of the third wave of Covid-19. ¡°We have been getting requests from certain accounts to allow their team members to work from Infosys campuses. In addition, some of our employees have also been asking to come back and start working from the office, as a personal preference.", the company said.
An Indian multinational information technology services and consulting company, HCL is following in the footsteps of its competitors to end work from home and call its employees back to the office. The CHRO stated that the company aims to vaccinate 100% of its staff in the current quarter. Currently, about 74% of its staff have been immunised. The company currently has over 1.7 lakh employees including 14,600 freshers globally last year and planning to hire over 20,000 fresh employees this year.
TCS, one of the leading IT companies, also plans to call back over 80 per cent of its employees. About 90% of its employees have already been vaccinated. Thus, as much as possible, the workforce has been prepared for back to the office. TCS CEO Rajesh Gopinathan said the decision would be based on the 3rd wave of Covid-19. ¡°Depending on the Covid-19 third wave, sometime towards the end of 2021 or early next year, we will get 70-80 per cent of our workforce back in the offices,¡± Rajesh said.?
In June this year, TCS recruited more than 20,000 employees, one of the highest in any quarter. The total number of employees in TCS is more than 5 lakh. The company also said that the pace of financial compensation will remain the same in FY22 and more than 40,000 freshers will be hired this year.
Wipro currently has around 2 lakh employees and about 55% of its employees in India have been vaccinated, said Wipro chairman Rishad Premji during the company¡¯s 75th annual general meeting on July 14. On Monday, the company's leaders started returning to office after 18 months of work from home that began in March 2020 due to Covid-19.?
¡°After 18 long months, our leaders @Wipro are coming back to the office starting tomorrow (twice a week). All fully vaccinated, all ready to go - safely and socially distanced," Premji said in a tweet. In another tweet, he shared a video that show the COVID-19-related safety protocols, including temperature checks and QR code scans, that have been put in place at the Wipro office.
The IT and digital product engineering firm, Nagarro has reopened its Gurgaon office with all Covid protocols in place. However, it is optional for employees to choose where they wish to work from. ¡°After 18 months of working from home, we can finally say something that many Nagarrians have long been waiting for! Yes, we are reopening the Nagarro office in Gurgaon, India. Of course, with all Covid protocols in place,¡± said the company via a LinkedIn post.?
An Indian non-governmental trade association and advocacy group, Nasscom followed other big giant companies and adopted a hybrid work model with less than 30% occupancy. Debjani Ghosh, President at Nasscom said on Twitter, "After 1.5 yrs of remote work, our key offices open today for hybrid work with strict covid protocols. Few key steps we are following, Less than 30% in office, Contactless solutions in washrooms, cafe etc, Improved ventilation, Strict covid protocols, Vaccination."
Apple is another big IT giant that follows the footsteps of other organisations by using a hybrid work model and asked its employees to come back to the office from this month. In hybrid style employees need to work from office work for three days a week. The hybrid model was already proposed by Apple CEO Tim Cook back in June 2021.
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