It seems that Indian IT services firms are readying to bring back their employees to offices after over one and a half years of Work From Home (WFH).
Initiation Of Returning To Office
They have already toom the first step as large IT firms are getting their senior employees in a leadership role to operate from offices.
In one of the recent tweets, Wipro Chairman Rishad Premji said that its leaders would start returning to the office from Monday (September 13) after 18 months of work from home amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
Further adding, “After 18 long months, our leaders @Wipro are coming back to the office starting tomorrow (twice a week),’’.
The move is aimed at instilling confidence among junior employees who have been working from remote locations since March last year.
The factors like the rapid pace of vaccination, less Covid caseload, and safe working conditions are driving this return trip.
Emerging Hybrid Model Of Working
It seems that the hybrid operating model where employees work a few days at home & the rest from the office, to be the future instead of operating offices at full capacity.
Some of the companies have a raging debate within the management whether employees should be given a permanent WFH option.
The Founder of Pareekh Consulting, Pareekh Jain, said “The companies have already informed employees that they need to come back. It is just a matter of timing. Confidence is slowly coming back because of rising vaccination. However, most companies are likely to opt for a hybrid working model rather than opting for a large-scale WFH model,”. He advises enterprises on technology outsourcing.
On the other hand, mid-tier and small IT services companies are also interested in a hybrid working model.
According to sources, IT services firms are reluctant to provide permanent WFH options, unlike global corporations, which are running ‘Global Capability Centres’ or captives in India.
On the other hand, Global corporations including Microsoft, Google, Facebook are offering their employees an option to work from remote locations permanently.
Why Are IT Firms Reluctant To Accept Permanent WFH?
There is a business logic behind the reluctance of IT firms to provide widespread permanent work from home (WFH).
Basically, the captives in India act as cost centres for global corporations.
In simple words, the Indian offices of IT firms operate as profit centres.
Explaining in detail, the vice-president at Experis of Manpower Group, Supaul Chanda said, “ODC (Offshore Development Centre) is a paid business, and IT firms charge the client for ODC. When the pandemic started and employees started working from home, clients said we wouldn’t pay for ODC. It was the first charge which got slashed.”
Further adding, “So, ODC as a business line (for IT firms) will take a huge hit if work from home continues,”.
So far, there is no finality as to which model will be followed by technology firms going ahead.