WFH: New HR policies on anvil

Bengaluru: Indian IT services companies are mulling to come up with a separate career plan for those employees who are opting for Work From Home (WFH) permanently or in a large measure.

Persons familiar with the development said the possibility of designing such a new HR policy for staffers operating in WFH mode has risen on the back of no near-term end in sight to the pandemic. Moreover, some level of reluctance has also been visible among IT employees operating from tier-II &tier-III cities to come back to physical offices. These factors are prompting IT firms to mull over a new career progression plan for employees opting to operate in WFH mode.

"IT firms may come up with a career progression plan for staffers operating in remote mode. Till now, companies don't have any defined HR policy for remote working. It is too early to talk about how it will look like, and what will be the specifics. But, the policy is like to come," Aditya Narayan Mishra, director and CEO of CIEL HR Services, told BizzBuzz.

Currently, more than 90 per cent of IT employees of large IT services companies are working from remote locations. Though many of these firms are planning to resume work from offices with most of their staffers coming back to their designated centres, these plans have been currently under hold due to rising Covid cases in India.

While there are no concerns over productivity of employees, companies are increasingly facing varied HR issues owing to WFH operating model. Moonlighting, impersonation, rising attrition and lack of team culture are some of the issues that have come to the fore in the last two years.

Analysts also said that many employees have been hired in the last two years in virtual mode, who don't have much idea about the culture of the company. "Companies don't have concern over productivity of employees in WFH mode. The main concern is that in the services sector, company culture is very vital in the long-run and WFH operating model has created concerns over this area.

Therefore, IT firms want to have a HR policy for those working from remote locations," said Mishra.

Meanwhile, analysts also pointed out that elevated attrition levels of Indian IT firms will see some respite as most employees start working from physical offices.

"Currently, arranging and attending interviews are far easier in remote working model than working from offices. So, resuming work from offices with majority of employees work in IT companies' favour," said another HR manager.