End Of Work From Home? Big Tech Companies In India Want Employees To Return To Offices Soon

Starting in March 2020, work from home has become the 'new normal' and in the nearly one-and-a-half years since then, both employees and employers who were initially reluctant and apprehensive have embraced it.

But things could be changing, slowly, especially in the IT industry, as the companies are urging their employees to start returning to offices.

Earlier this month, IT major TCS said the company will encourage employees to join offices by the end of the calendar year 2021.

At present, about 5 per cent of the IT major's associates are working from offices.

"Towards the end of CY'21, we will encourage our associates to return to offices, at least initially, before we switch to the '25/25' model. This will be done in a phased and flexible manner and will depend on respective team leaders and the requirements of each team or project.

Reuters

"We are committed to the 25/25 model but before transition to the model, we need to start by getting people back to office and gradually evolve to 25/25," the TCS said.

Under the model, by 2025, no more than 25 per cent of the company's employees will need to work from the office at any given point, and an employee will not need to spend more than 25 per cent of their time in office.

As a preparation for coming back to office, the IT major has requested employees to plan to get back to their deputed location (their base branch) by November 15.

Return to office will be calibrated

"The return to office will be a calibrated move taking employee safety to consideration."

According to the company, the '25/25' model is an important design element, and will take a couple of years to mature.

Infosys also plans to bring employees back to office, as more and more people get vaccinated, the company said globally about 97 per cent employees are still working from home; the numbers vary across geographies.

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Starting July, both in the US and India, Infosys had opened up its offices and employees were allowed to come in on a voluntary basis, with stringent protocols in place.

"We will probably now start looking at things in a much more formal manner. In October in India we are requesting all the senior leaders to come to office at least once a week," the company had said.

HCL Technologies has also started asking its senior employees to come to office at least twice a week, while others must attend office once a week as per requirement. ¡°We do expect momentum to increase by the end of this calendar year. This is the policy that we have at this point of time,¡± Apparao VV, chief human resource officer of the company said.

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Wipro had asked fully-vaccinated employees have started going back to the office from last month.

While most companies are eager to get their employees back in offices, a large section of the staff is not so enthusiastic.

Many, especially those who had been living in big cities had gone back to their hometowns, vacating their rented houses and apartment.

For them, returning and finding accommodation will be a challenge.

Others say that they are better productive working from home as they don't have to spend hours commuting to and from the office.

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