As the fast-spreading Covid-19 variant Omicron has emerged as a fresh challenge to economic recovery worldwide, India’s leading software exporters including Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys are taking a “cautious approach” to their previously announced ‘back to office’ plans slated for January 2022, the Economic Times mentioned in a report citing senior executives from the companies.
TCS, the country’s largest software exporter, said less than 10% of its associates are working from its offices currently, while any plans for a fullfledged return to office will be a “calibrated move,” the business daily mentioned.
Similarly, IT major Infosys said it has “taken a cautious approach” keeping in mind the “changing health situation.”
HCL Technologies said it “will continue to monitor the emergence and impact of Covid 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.”
It may be noted that 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 longterm 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 onground 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,” the business daily quoted Richard Lobo, executive vice-president and HR head at Infosys as saying.
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
According to virologists, India, home to a $190-billion IT services industry, is also under threat of an Omicron wave. 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,” the financial daily quoted a company representative as saying.
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.
