Return to office (RTO) is a coordinated plan to safely bring back employees to the workplace. Companies are updating their policies to lure employees back to workplace and Work from Office. However, few companies are keeping the work from Home option open.
IT and Tech major companies including TCS, Accenture, IBM, Google, and Infosys, etc are calling their employees back to the office and trying to have them work at least 2-3 days from the office.
Extra sleep, breakfast: Google offers on-campus hotel to lure staff for WFO
To lure employees return to office, Google is offering a “Summer Special” program for employees aiming to ease hybrid work and travel time, and enjoy “delicious food.” The employees can book a room at an on-campus hotel in Mountain View for $99 a night in what it’s deeming a “Summer Special”.
The internal material, as quoted in the report, reads, “Just imagine no commute to the office in the morning, and instead, you could have an extra hour of sleep and less friction.”
“Next, you could walk out of your room and quickly grab a delicious breakfast or get a workout in before work starts. The employees can enjoy a “quiet evening on top of the rooftop deck” after their work day ends”, it added.
Earlier, Google revised its hybrid work policy, making it mandatory for employees to be in the office for at least three days a week. Additionally, the company will also be including the “three days per week” in the performance reviews.
Cognizant doesn’t mandate its employees to Return to Office
An American multinational information technology services, Cognizant is not mandating its employees to return to the office any time soon.
“We did express that social capital is important as we have freshers in the mix who will need hand-holding. It won’t be impactful if the managers don’t come to work. We will have a more natural progression of return-to-work,” Cognizant CEO Ravi Kumar S said during an earnings call on Thursday.
“Our flexible return to work is actually helping us get in more women to work as opposed to affecting them,” CEO Ravi Kumar added.
HP to enhance hybrid work model for employees
HP is enhancing the hybrid work model for employees. The company is providing the necessary tools to its IT teams to uphold this emerging work paradigm.
Vickram Bedi, senior director (personal systems), HP, India has pointed out that younger employees, in particular, encounter difficulties with their personal computers or laptops.
He has also advised enhancing the availability of video conferencing solutions and office meeting spaces and empowering employees with a comprehensive PC setup, encompassing elements such as monitors, keyboards, and noise-canceling headphones.
They often perceive their devices as insufficiently fast or dependable for hybrid meetings, resulting in what’s termed as ‘tech shame’.
The company has emphasized in allocating resources towards technology infrastructure to facilitate efficient cooperation between remote and on-site staff is crucial. This, in turn, elevates overall productivity within the hybrid work setting
Citigroup is monitoring WFO, low attendance may lead to losing job
An American multinational investment bank and financial services corporation, Citigroup UK to start monitoring employees’ office attendance.
Citigroup will now focus on employees those who are taking advantage of hybrid work. Additionally, it will check the employees who have repeatedly avoided coming into the office without reason.
According to Business Insider, the attendance of the employees is being tracked from August 7 onwards. Moreover, Those who are found to be consistently irregular will risk losing their bonuses or even their jobs.
In June 2023, the financial services company made it mandatory for its employees to work at least three days a week in the office as part of its hybrid working arrangement.
TCS 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.”
Infosys ends work-from-home option in United States and Canada
The Indian multinational information technology company, Infosys has ended Work from home and has asked its employees in the United States and Canada to return to the office.
The policy applies to the workforce of over 30,000 employees in the USA and Canada. The company has announced employees will be required to obtain special permission if they wish to work remotely.
Earlier in February, Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy said that youngsters should also not insist on working from home.
Narayana Murthy said, “Anybody who has told you that work ethics are not important, hard work is not important and laziness is good, they are not your well-wishers.”
Accenture asked employees to work from base locations
IT and consulting giant, Accenture is encouraging employees to work from the office. It has instructed the Team Leaders and Managers to ensure their respective team members are working from their base locations by August 31, 2023.
This indicates that the company is beginning to prepare employees to work from the office which will be done in a calibrated and phased manner.
The company has reportedly asked employees to work on the following points:-
- Accenture has asked employees to return to their base locations and start working on collaborations and better connecting with team members.
- Team members are required to work on critical projects and do their best together to meet clients’ needs.
IBM & Wipro Stand on WFO
In a Nasscom Technology and Leadership Summit 2023, Wipro chairman Rishad Premji said that he wants employees to return to workplaces and get over the work-from-home mindset. Premji also believes that hybrid work is the future for most workplaces.
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.