Mumbai | New Delhi: India’s top software exporters are taking a “cautious approach” to their previously announced ‘back to office’ plans slated for January 2022, senior executives told ET, as fast-spreading Covid-19 variant Omicron presents a fresh challenge to economic recovery worldwide.
Tata Consultancy Services NSE -0.55 % (TCS), the country’s largest IT services firm, said less than 10% of its associates are working from its offices currently, while any plans for a full-fledged return to office will be a “calibrated move”.
In Bengaluru, Infosys said it has “taken a cautious approach” keeping in mind the “changing health situation”.
- HCL Technologies NSE -1.63 % said it “will continue to monitor the emergence and impact of Covid-19 variants which could limit the movement of employees”. The Noida-headquartered company said a tenth of its employees are working from the office at present, and it expects to continue with the “current hybrid model”.
Change of Plans
The cautionary note contrasts sharply with the announcements made by the IT giants during the second quarter results in October. At that time, most IT companies stated they would gradually initiate back-to-work plans by the end of December or in January 2022, while also planning for a long-term model of hybrid work.
In November, industry body Nasscom estimated that half of India’s 4.5-million technology workforce would return to office thrice a week from the new year.
However, the rapid spread of Omicron has changed the on-ground situation quickly, executives said.
“Right now, physical attendance is on a voluntary basis and we have encouraged managers to take the lead. We haven’t forced anybody to attend daily or to relocate,” said Richard Lobo, executive vice-president and HR head at Infosys.
Lobo said the software services major has taken a cautious approach due to the changing health situation. “We expect to operate in hybrid mode for most of the coming year,” he said, pointing out that “if the situation stays stable, infection rates are low and vaccination is higher, Infosys will probably have a larger percentage of its workforce returning.”
Earlier in November, TCS asked employees to start relocating to base cities as the company evaluated a measured return plan. Senior employees were asked to report to office once or twice a week. “In view of the new Covid-19 variant, we continue to monitor the external environment carefully,” a spokesperson for TCS told ET.
Fresh Wave
Home to a $190-billion IT services industry, India is also under threat of an Omicron wave, virologists have said. The variant, which has been reported in 89 countries so far, is leading to the number of cases doubling in 1.5-3 days in areas with community transmission, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Saturday. Despite high levels of vaccinations, the fresh wave has derailed a return to normalcy and sent many countries such as the Netherlands into a lockdown again.
For TCS, where less than 10% of its 528,748 associates are working from offices, “the return to work will be a calibrated move, taking employee safety, health and wellbeing into consideration,” a company representative said.
The Mumbai-headquartered IT giant aims to move towards a hybrid workplace model — termed 25/25 — according to which it expects to have only 25% of its employees working from the company’s premises by 2025.
As late as October, Infosys had stated that nearly all of its 279,617 employees were still working from home worldwide. Except for geographies like China, where 91% of workers were in the office, both in the US and the UK, nearly 98.5% were working from home, while 90% of employees in continental Europe and about 80% in South East Asia were WFH.
Talent Crunch
In the previous two to three quarters, technology firms have reported a spike in attrition. The likes of Wipro and Infosys have reported over 20% attrition rates. According to data from staffing firm Teamlease, attrition for full time IT-BPM employees in India is expected to reach 24% by March 2022, compared to 13% in 2021.
Increasingly, IT executives admit that giving employees the freedom to choose where they work from is an important retention lever for the talent-starved ecosystem.
Apparao VV, chief human resources officer at HCL Technologies, said that while a tenth of its employees in India are working out of offices, the company “will continue to monitor the emergence and impact of Covid variants” that could limit the movement of employees.
During the second quarter, HCL stated that close to 5-6% of its 187,634 employees were returning to office once or twice a week — based on seniority — with the share expected to increase by December.
Tech Mahindra too noted that about a fifth of its workforce, which includes most of its senior leaders, is entirely working from the office. However, Harshvendra Soin, global chief people officer and marketing head at Tech Mahindra, told ET that all its employees have been advised to choose their work location as per their convenience till December 2021. “The company will evaluate the return to office plan based on the prevailing situation with respect to Covid-19,” he said.
