The COVID-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented turmoil and companies forced employees to work from home (WFH) by leveraging information technology.
However, returning to the office after more than two years of working remotely marks another significant shift in how we work—and it brings with it some major opportunities. For a couple of months, companies have been implementing processes to make employees Work from Office.
TCS modifies its appraisal process to make employees WFO
Earlier, in January Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) had modified its appraisal system so that the employees can work from the office.
The company stated that the appraisals are designed to be a feedback and improvement mechanism for the associates.
This has led the company’s 55% of employees have started working 3 days a week from the office.
Milind Lakkad, Chief HR Officer, said, “We remain focused on developing, retaining, and rewarding the best talent in the industry, and enhancing their effectiveness by bringing them back to office to foster our culture. Our Return to Office initiative is picking pace, with 55% of the workforce already in office thrice a week.”
“We have given a 12-15% raise for exceptional performers in our latest annual compensation review, and also commenced the promotions cycle”, Milind Lakkad added.
HCLTech expects 70% of employees to WFO by FY24-end
HCLTech expects to have almost 70 per cent of its staff walking into physical workspaces by the end of the current fiscal, CEO C Vijayakumar said.
The approach for working in the office will be based on going ‘need-based’. As several projects expect employees to work from offices at least for some time a week.
HCLTech CEO C Vijayakumar said, “We have a hybrid-first virtual operating model and it is based on need.”
“We expect people to come to offices three days a week, and we’ve had modest success,” he added.
He further said, “We have, at least, half of our people coming to work three days a week, and that number continues to increase.”
Amazon is asking some employees to relocate
Amazon has implemented its policy and is asking some corporate workers to relocate to other cities as part of its return-to-office policy.
The announcement follows when the company earlier mandated employees to work from the office three days a week.
Infosys: Clients demand work from office
Infosys is currently providing its employees with flexible work hours and work-from-home options in a hybrid work model.
However, now some of the clients are currently demanding work from the office. Infosys CEO and MD Salil Parekh responded to a shareholder’s query at the recent annual general meeting (AGM) of the company.
Accenture WFO Policy
Recently, IT and consulting giant, Accenture has also instructed the Team Leaders and Managers to ensure their respective team members are working from their base locations by August 31, 2023.
Earlier, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna warns employees, said return to office or lose career opportunities. Remote work can hurt the career prospects of employees, especially in managerial roles.
If you aspire to lead roles would face difficulties in getting promoted, especially to managerial positions, he added.
He said, “Remote work is more suitable for certain roles that require individual work. In the short term, you probably can be equally productive, but your career does suffer.”
“Moving from there to another role is probably less likely because nobody’s observing them in another context. It will be tougher. Not impossible, but probably a lot tougher”, he added.
He also said that I’m not forcing any staffers to come into the office just yet, but those who don’t would be hard-pressed to get promoted, especially into managerial roles.
“Working remotely is a choice that people make, but it can be changed depending on their convenience or situation. I don’t understand how to do all that remotely”, he further said.
Persistent Systems also opened smaller offices to lure its employees back to office culture. The firm already has big facilities in various cities but to make it convenient for employees and reduce their travel time, Persistent Systems opens small offices in Pune and Bengaluru accommodating 200 employees.
Sumit Sabharwal, CEO of Teamlease HRtech said, “Moving to tier 2 and tier 3 cities makes better business sense when compared to a few decades ago. Internet penetration, education, infrastructure, supply chains, transportation, logistics, everything has improved by leaps and bounds.”
“Tier II and tier III cities are now offering more scalability to businesses, resulting in increased interest from businesses”, Sumit Sabharwal added.