HCLTech plans to deduct leaves of employees who don't show up to office

The IT major is planning to link attendance with leaves wherein, if HCLTech employees fail to come to the office for at least thrice a week, the company plans to deduct their leaves

As IT companies around the world race to tighten employee rules, including a near-extinction of the work-from-home provision, Indian firms are going a step ahead in ensuring employee attendance on their premises.

According to a report by Monycontrol, the country’s third-largest IT firm, HCLTech is all set to deploy a new policy to link the ascribed leaves of the employees with their attendance in the office.

Essentially, the employees have to be present physically in the office campus thrice a week, and 12 times a month. Any number lesser would result in the deduction of leaves from the employee’s account, the report said citing sources.

HCLTech plans to initiate a three-day work-from-office schedule to encourage employees to return to campus post-pandemic, according to the report.

Currently, HCLTech offers 18 annual leaves and one personal leave to employees with less than three years of service. Those with over three years of tenure receive approximately 20 annual leaves and two personal leaves.

For the June quarter, HCLTech reported a 20 per cent year-on-year increase in net profit, reaching Rs 4,257 crore, compared to Rs 3,534 crore in the same period last year. The company’s revenue from operations grew by 6.7 percent to Rs 28,057 crore in Q1FY25, up from Rs 26,296 crore in Q1FY24.

Other companies’ tactics to end work-from-home

Earlier this year, Cognizant asked its India-based employees to come to the office three times a week. The company introduced a system to monitor office attendance and manage seat allocation.

TCS’ variable pay policy

Tata Consultancy Service (TCS) faced criticism for a new policy introduced in April that linked employees' quarterly variable pay to their office attendance. Employees spending less than 60 per cent of their time in the office would not receive any variable pay, while those attending between 60-75 per cent would receive 50 per cent of the variable pay.

Dell Technologies’ monitoring system

Dell Technologies planned to use electronic badge swipes, VPN, and a colour-coded system to track employee attendance. The system categorises attendance into four colours: blue (consistent on-site), green (regular on-site), yellow (partial on-site), and red (limited on-site). Although Dell has a significant presence in India, it does not disclose the exact number of employees in the country.