According to Times of India report, as the IT industry is planning to bring employees back to the office, experts from the industry believe that 50% of techies may start work from office by July this year and the remaining will be expected to be operational in the coming weeks.
Hyderabad Software Enterprises Association (HYSEA) President Bharani Kumar Aroll has informed us that 75% of IT companies have opened their office. And around 15-18% of employees have returned to workplace and companies are encouraging others to work from office.
Krishna Yedula, Secretary-General of Society for Cyberabad Security Council (SCSC) said, “100% of employees of BPOs, KPOs, product companies, SMEs are back to work.”
The IT employees can be gradually called back to offices, IT expert Kiranmai Pendyala said, “Similar to ‘ease of business’, it has to be ‘ease of coming back to office’.”
Pendyala further said, “Workplaces are interactive places and employees are willing to resume office but they want to be assured about the health and safety at workplaces.” He was addressing a panel discussion organized by Telangana Facility Management Council (TFMC).
“The workplaces are places where employees meet their colleagues, collaborate, learn and work together for shared goals so it is important for them to return to office.”, said Vinay Agarwal, Global Head-Business HR, Tech Mahindra
He added, “It is quite a challenging task to bring the entire workforce back to office immediately even though ‘Work from Home’ has pitfalls such as psychological problems, marital issues, lack of comfortable working environment as homes are not as good as offices in terms of comfort.”
HYSEA earlier this month along with associations representing hostels and facility management players have appealed to techies to return to Hyderabad. This has directly impacted indirect jobs in the city.
Some of the major IT companies in Hyderabad are IBM, Microsoft, Infosys, Cognizant, Capgemini, Wipro, SAP, Tata Consultancy Services, etc.
Recently Infosys has announced calling its employees back to the office in three phases.
In the first phase, the people who are in the home locations, which could be in the DC (Development Centre) or can join the DC near their home town. The company is encouraging them to come at least twice a week.”
The second phase would include people outside the towns that do not have Infosys delivery centres, these employees have been asked to prep up over the next few months to see if they can come back to the centres.
And third, the company is looking at a “more hybrid work model” depending on clients, regulatory environment and a number of other considerations.
Commenting on return to office Cognizant said, “Starting in April, the company is shifting from an exception-based return-to-office approach to one that makes it easier for our teams to work from an office. As space permits, and on a voluntary basis, employees will be welcome to work from an open office to collaborate face-to-face with their colleagues and teams.
“Many employees will continue to work from home, although client and business requirements will determine the need to work from a Cognizant or client office.” It said.
“By the end of the year and into early 2023, we expect to fully transition to the hybrid work model as our long-term state. Across the hybrid model, employees will work a set number of days from the office. Their number of days in office versus remote will vary based on the kind of work they do and client requirements.” It added.
