India’s top IT firms are on track to bring back employees to offices. As slowly and steadily the number of COVID-19 cases wane, IT behemoth Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) along with its peers like Wipro, Cognizant, Infosys have asked their employees to be ready as they could be called to the offices as early as next month.

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After almost 2 years of WFH, it will be a big change for organisations as well as employees to start working from offices. While most companies are planning to follow a flexible hybrid work model, there will still be significant disruption in the work-life of IT employees.

The Bengaluru-based IT service provider Wipro has asked managers and above to return by March 3, 2022. However, they will be called for two days a week for now. Cognizant is planning to open its offices for a voluntary return to premises by April. Infosys will open its offices to a larger share of employees in the next 3-4 months even as it expects to continue with the hybrid work model through 2022.

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“Beginning March 3, fully vaccinated employees who are managers and above will have the option to return to work from our India campuses, twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays. We will continue to extend the work from home arrangement for other employees,” said a spokesperson from Wipro.

Meanwhile, TCS and Infosys have also joined the trends of the hybrid work model. While Infosys plans to call the majority of its employees to offices in the next 3-4 months, TCS has brought a remote working policy that constitutes work from the base location even when you have opted for WFH.

TCS expects its staff to work from home in their “depute” locations even as it expects remote working to continue, according to internal emails sent to associates. “With most of our associates across the globe vaccinated and the overall COVID-19 situation showing improvement, many of our associates have already started working out of TCS premises on a regular basis,” TCS said in an email to employees on last week.

According to the management, over 96 percent of its employees are still working remotely and the company does not envisage a sudden shift from this mode as the company continues to take precautions.

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“In a steady-state, subject to COVID scenarios, we expect a hybrid model in which approximately 40-50 percent of employees are likely to work from office post subsequent phases of return to office.” said Richard Lobo, executive vice president, head HR at Infosys.

Starting April, Cognizant has plans to have employees back on premise. “Cognizant aims to return to the office in a phased manner starting April 2022 as we monitor the uncertain path of the Omicron variant…Until then, travel will be restricted, and office-based work will remain voluntary," Shantanu Jha, senior vice president, HR said. For employees not assigned to a client site or to working fully remotely, our new standard workweek under the hybrid model will consist of three days in the office and two from wherever they work best, he further added.

First Published:Feb 21, 2022 9:59 PM IST