WFO back in focus as productivity falls

Companies are paying high real estate prices whether people come to offices or not. Rents don’t come down. So, it’s better to have employees back in offices. Moreover, there were productivity issues seen in Dec qtr. That’s the reason that work from office is on the priority list - Supaul Chanda, Global Business Head at Otomeyt, tells Bizz Buzz

Bengaluru: IT services firms, global product companies and even technology startups, are getting their staffers back in offices as appraisal season approaches. Concerns over productivity, high rental prices, company culture and privacy issues are also weighing on in asking employees to operate from offices at least for a few days in a week.

Sources in the staffing industry said that while companies are paying high rentals for offices, it is better to have their people back in offices for higher productivity. They, however, pointed out that flexible operating model would continue in the near future.

“Companies are paying high real estate prices whether people come to offices or not. Rents don’t come down. So, it’s better to have employees back in offices. Moreover, there were productivity issues seen in the last quarter (October-December). That’s the reason that work from office is on the priority list,” Supaul Chanda, Global Business Head at Otomeyt, a talent engineering firm, told Bizz Buzz.

“It’s also the time when appraisal happens for most companies. Employees start looking for jobs if they are not happy with their present ones. That is another factor, which is driving companies to get people work from offices,” he added.

Many of the Indian IT services firms were the first ones to ask their employees to work from office, ending the two-year long work from home (WFH) operating model.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the largest employer of IT workforce in India, has issued a final warning to its employees for returning to offices by end of March 2024. While the IT giant has extended the deadline by a month, it has made it clear that this will be the final deadline, and failing to comply will lead to serious consequences.

Infosys last year had asked select employees in the junior and mid-level to return to office ten days a month. Wipro told its employees last year that they were required to be physically present in offices for at least three days in a week. Similarly, HCL Tech has made it compulsory for its employees to report to offices for three days a week. Entry-level employees and freshers would work from all five days from offices, the company said. Many global IT firms like IBM have also followed similar operating model.

Not only IT services firms, but also global product giants like Google, Amazon, Dell and others also put return to office on their priority lists.

Making it compulsory for operating out of offices for three days, Google has said that it will now begin tracking the attendance badge of employees and rate them accordingly during performance reviews.

However, experts in the staffing industry said that hybrid work would continue despite a tight job market. “Flexible operating model is going to stay though employers’ push to return to offices will increase in coming months,” said a source in the staffing industry.