India Inc tells employees to return to office; IT firms take the lead

Wanting its employees to trade in their sweatpants for a sharp suit as Covid cases rise

After grappling with the Great Resignation and the Great Retirement, the workplace is now facing the Great Return. This is happening at a time when Covid infections are rising across the country once again, but Corporate India wants employees to trade in their sweatpants for a sharp suit and resume work from the office.

India on Monday reported 14,917 fresh Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, and the toll  climbed to 5,27,069 with 32 fatalities, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare data showed.

Information technology (IT) companies have long been at the forefront when it comes to allowing hybrid or remote work. But 

they are rolling back remote work plans and urging workers to return to the office, reflecting the desire of many firms to want control over their employees.

This is an obvious departure from the earlier flexible schedule which reflected the reality of a job market then, where workers had quit their jobs seeking either higher pay, better benefits or more control over their daily lives.

Witnessing the lowest attendance in office, Indian IT services firms say their priority is to get people to return to office.

Harsh Goenka, chairman, RPG group, triggered a debate when he warned IT workers of a mediocre career trajectory if they dug in their heels and worked from home.

“Employees now need to come back to the office, at least on some days of the week. We need to foster the spirit and mission of the organisation, the culture, the creativity, the camaraderie, the water cooler talk. Working from home is no longer a long-term viable option,” Goenka wrote in a LinkedIn post in early August.

RPG Group currently allows half its employees to work from home.

Almost all the top-draw conglomerates are asking their senior executives to report to work, although a few start-ups like Swiggy have allowed work from anywhere.

Indian IT services firms say although they see the hybrid workforce as the new normal, getting workers to office depends more on what clients want and the employee job profile. The priority, they say, is to return to the office and to the work sites.

In the Indian IT services segment, companies continue to convince employees to return to office for the hybrid policy to kick in. 

Take the case of India’s biggest software exporter, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). It said 20 per cent of its employees are back at work. 

“On an immediate basis, we will continue to drive the return-to-office model because the 25/25 plan needs to be executed in a more controlled manner. The pathway to that will first involve getting back to a normal working environment and then getting back to the permanent hybrid environment. We will keep on driving that 20 per cent (the staff that are back to office in the first quarter) to well above 50-60/70-80 per cent levels as we go forward. We should see steady progress every month,” said Rajesh Gopinathan, chief executive officer and managing director, TCS.

Saurabh Govil, president and chief human resource officer (CHRO), Wipro, says, “We have slowly witnessed a trend where clients are insisting employees be at work. We are not forcing anyone to come to the office. We feel it is important to stay connected, as well as provide flexibility to employees. How we strike that delicate balance is crucial,” he adds.

Zensar, the IT services company from RPG Group, has started asking employees to return to office for a few days in a week.

Right now, roughly 10-20 per cent of its employees are working from office locations. 

“We are encouraging our associates to work from the office, a few days a week, to ensure they are able to connect with their managers, peers, and colleagues. Additionally, we are providing a flexible option of two/three days a week at the moment,” says Vivek Ranjan, senior vice-president and CHRO, Zensar Technologies.

When asked if the company has a hybrid policy in place, Ranjan says: “We are currently following a hybrid work policy. This will evolve as we slowly get ready to welcome an increasing number of people back to office. Our hybrid policy will be based on feedback from our employees, customer requirements, regulatory environment, and other factors. We have also opened offices in more locations to provide greater options to our teams. A few months back, we opened an office in Kolkata. 

Employee wellness and productivity are critical to all RPG Group companies. We will continue with the hybrid model with each group company having the flexibility to choose what works best for its businesses.”

There are exceptions though. 

Tata Motors, the Tata group flagship, which transitioned to a hybrid work model towards the end of the first wave of the pandemic, is satisfied with the results it has yielded thus far, says Ravindra G P, CHRO at the firm.

Forty five per cent of its employees are required to come to the office twice a week. 

The remaining 55 per cent are employed at its factories.  

“Our overall performance as a company also gives us reason to believe the hybrid model is working well for us,” says Ravindra.

The primary focus is on delivery and not the number of person hours clocked in a cubicle, he says.

The company chose hybrid instead of a work-from–anywhere mode because “it is important to remain connected. We are a growing company. Since remote working was not a solution for everybody, we went with hybrid. That has helped,” says Ravindra.

He concedes the model is not without its share of flaws. 

“The pandemic period ended up blurring the lines between office and personal time. The overall health of our employees is of paramount concern. We want employees to be able to contribute, learn, and grow,” he says. 

The model has also helped the firm lessen attrition. 

Depending on their roles, the average employee turnover in the automotive industry is 10 per cent. At Tata Motors, it is still lower, he claims.

It has also helped the company attract a younger workforce. “There are prospective candidates asking if they can work from cities they are domiciled in. Only specialised roles like analytics and embedded software allow that ‘luxury’. We have lost candidates due to this,” he says.

A flexible work schedule also helps companies draw more women into the workforce — particularly nursing mothers. “More often than not the woman chooses to support the husband’s career, leaving her to take care of the elderly and children. A hybrid 

model allows her the much-needed flexibility,” says Ravindra.

But not all of Tata Motors’ peers accept the hybrid model.  

Employees of Maruti Suzuki India, for instance, have been in office five days a week, irrespective of their role since the pandemic’s second wave tapered off.

Starting this month, Mahindra Group has made it mandatory for employees to turn up at work on all working days of the week, according to an internal circular issued on July 31. It had until July offered employees the flexibility to either operate from home or office. Employees can work from home only during personal emergencies, it clarified.

Changing Realty

• Employees of Maruti Suzuki India have been in office five days a week
• Mahindra Group has made it mandatory to work from office 
• Tata Motors has asked 45% of employees to work from office twice a week
• TCS asking staff to return to offices and will then transition to the permanent hybrid environment
• Zensar has asked employees to return to office for a few days in a week