End in sight for WFH in IT cos?

Bengaluru: Many employees of Indian IT services companies are expected to work from offices starting from April as gradual reopening of offices is on the cards. However, sources in the know said that operations from offices will happen in a gradual manner as many employees are not willing to come back to their base stations after two years of remote working.

"IT firms are planning the work from offices from April onwards. Many have also started sending mails to report back to base stations from this month. However, we are also hearing that many junior employees are resisting coming back to offices after prolonged period of remote working," said a head of Bengaluru-based HR firm, which handles many big IT services clients.

Also, uncertainty over Covid inflection is weighing on the decisions of IT companies, which had to shift to remote mode of working towards the end of last year due to Omicron wave. Therefore, these companies are taking up a flexible approach towards working from offices, which will happen in phases. Market leader Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has come up with a detailed remote working policy and has asked its employees to operate from base locations (the centre from which the employees used to work during pre-pandemic period) from this month onwards. Similarly, Wipro has asked managers and above to come back to offices from this month, though it will be for two days a week. The company has stopped work from offices in mid-January due to rising Omicron waves. Infosys has earlier said that resuming work from offices would depend on the certainty of safety and might happen in next 3-4 months. Another IT major, Cognizant has plans to have employees back on premise in a phased manner from April onwards.

Meanwhile, many of the global captive centres of MNCs have asked their employees to report back in their base centres in April. Earlier, HR experts told Bizz Buzz that IT firms are increasingly facing issues with related to erosion of their company cultures apart from moonlighting and high attrition. That is the reason these companies are keen to make their employees back in offices.

Currently, many large companies are witnessing more than 20 per cent of average employee attrition in recent quarters. This is not only limited to large IT companies, but mid-tier IT firms are also witnessing the same.