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More inclination to office work: Corporate leaders are keen on driving a work-from-office format as the world opens up, with most of them leading it from the front. 

Remote and hybrid models of working have resulted in some level of employee disconnect, with issues like moonlighting and attrition. But even as the Great Attrition of 2021 converted to The Great Stay where lesser employees are leaving companies, there is a necessity to bring people back to offices.

Current Numbers

The attrition rates for large-cap IT companies TCS and Infosys, who announced their results on Thursday, stood at 13.3 per cent and 12.9 per cent respectively.

TCS’ workforce stood at 6.03 lakh on December 31, 2023, with over 5,500 people leaving. Lesser people left Infosys at 6,101 people leaving in the December quarter, bringing the total headcount of the organisation to 3.23 lakh. 

The number was higher in September at 7,500 employees leaving in September last year. Another large-cap IT services firm Wipro, which is yet to announce its results today, saw a reduction in headcount in Q2 by 5051 employees from 2,49,758 last quarter to 2,44,707. 

Perspective Switch

Hybrid must evolve to encourage more collaboration post-pandemic, said Deepti Sagar, Chief People and Experience Officer, Deloitte India. 

“If earlier we were saying, ‘work from home and come to office on some days’, organisations will now encourage, ‘come to the office, meet people, ideate together – and on some days, continue to enjoy working from home’,” she added.

The company, part of the Big 4 consultancies among KPMG, PwC and EY, has the professionals attending office, with the number of days per week flexible depending on their team’s guidelines.

A study by Accenture reveals that the “Productivity everywhere” model is used by 63 per cent of the high-growth firms.

Richard Lobo, Chief People Officer at Tech Mahindra told Republic Business that the company follows hybrid working to ensure business continuity while maintaining employee flexibility.

“At Tech Mahindra, we believe in fostering a flexible work culture that accommodates the diverse needs of our employees, while maintaining their productivity. Keeping this in mind, we have implemented hybrid work policies that not only allow flexibility for our employees, but also ensure business continuity and growth for our customers.”

Even as large organisations call employees back, there needs to be more incentive and inspiration for breaking the habit of not going to offices.

Leading Change

For engineering research and development company L&T Technology Services, employees are turning up to offices 3-4 times a week.

Lakshmanan M, Chief Human Resources Officer of LTTS said the company has a two-tier approach to ensure normalcy in attendance.

The company follows a work-from-office model, with employee bonding programs, providing amenities, and led by leaders from the top. 

“We don’t force employees to come back to the office. Instead in LTTS, we have followed the Phrase  – Leaders Walk the Talk.  So, over the last year, leaders…attend office regularly and “nudge” their next-level leaders to attend office,” he said. 

But instead of calling employees to base locations, the company said it has a WFX or Work from any of the offices in an employee’s base location.

“We have now achieved near normal attendance in most of our offices across various locations in India,” he noted.

Who’s in office?

Among the large-cap companies, offices are calling employees to work thrice a week, with Wipro seeing 55 per cent of its employees turning up thrice a week. 

Tata Consultancy CHRO Milind Lakkad told PTI that as much as 65 per cent of its workforce are reporting to their offices, while others are still following a hybrid model. 

He did not set a timeline for all employees to report to work in the office “as long as productivity does not suffer.”

Pawan Bhageria, President of Global HR, IT, Admin and Education at Tata Technologies said organisations should not react to changes in the talent market dynamics, and instead offer role-specific and period-specific flexibility options.

“Organisations should shift away from a reactive approach to adjusting policies in response to changes in the talent market dynamics. While the pandemic necessitated swift adjustments and at the same time presented new possibilities, however now, returning to conventional practices may not be the optimal solution…implementing hybrid modes on a broad scale, while still allowing for role-specific and individual life-phase adaptations for specific periods (is the key),” he said.

A Microsoft survey of over 30,000 employees from over 31 countries said that 65 per cent of employees prefer on-site scheduling with team members, whereas 70 per cent prefer flexible working options.