Omicron poses new challenge to IT cos

Onsite Projects

- Techies mostly in the US not working

- Though there's no disruption so far, it'll affect in near future

- Surging workload of US onsite projects

- Such projects being executed in India

Bengaluru: Rapid rise in Covid cases in the US has led to fears of operational disruption in this key market of Indian IT services industry, leading to more work being implemented from India and other offshore or near shore centres.

Sources in the know say that though no operational disruption has been seen so far, there are increased absenteeism in the US across various industries.

"We have started to see absent of team members in the US in many projects. These works are currently being handled from India. Though there is no disruption so far, we may see more workload of onsite projects of the US is being executed by Indian team members in coming days," said source familiar with the development. The US reported a record 1 million Covid cases recently, making it the worst affected country in the world. Such rapid surge in cases has disrupted workflow across many industries. For instance, airlines in the US have cancelled a large number of flights in recent weeks due to rising infections among crew members. Many businesses including technology firms have again deferred their plans to bring back employees to offices. Many have also cut back employee numbers working from offices owing to rising Omicron cases. Not only Indian IT services companies, even GCCs (global capability centres) of American MNCs have started to feel the pressure of employee absenteeism in the US. "We have been told to stay ready to take up additional workload from US offices," said a mid-level employee working in an American MNC. Meanwhile, rising omicron graph in India have forced IT services companies to put their work from offices plans on hold.

Earlier, all IT majors including TCS, Infosys, Wipro, HCL Technologies were planning to resume work from offices. "At present, we have about five per cent of our associates working from offices. Towards the end of CY-21 (calendar year 2021), we will encourage our associates to return to offices, at least initially, before we switch to the 25/25 model," the company said. TCS aims to have only 25 per cent of its employees working from offices at any point of time by 2025. Similarly, a recent Nasscom study has said that more than half of the employees working in the Indian IT industry is likely to return to offices three times a week from January 2022.

However, all these plans have been put on hold for now as the new variant has created uncertainty for the near future.