Time to log out of WFH mode?

AFTER postponing the reopening of offices, Indian IT services firms are looking at bringing back some of their employees to offices in October this year by pursuing aggressive vaccination campaign.

According to sources in the know, vaccination drive is aggressively done as many companies are looking at bringing back their critical employees to offices with strict social distancing measures.

"We are looking at bringing back some employees from October onwards. The way the current vaccination drive is being pursued; it looks like a possibility. However, the reopening will only be done in tranches," said a top official working in a large Indian IT services company on conditions of anonymity.

Earlier, Indian IT services firms were planning to bring back employees from February this year. However, this plan had to be postponed as a raging second wave impacted the Indian population very adversely during March-May period.

From this month, though caseload has come down, most corporates are focusing on vaccination drive to protect their employees from the pandemic before looking at reopening of offices.

As part of this drive, most technology firms are currently pursuing the vaccination drive in many major centres across India. Companies including Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, Wipro, HCL Technologies, Tech Mahindra, L&T Technology Services, and many more are currently undertaking vaccination drive in major centres like Bengaluru, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai, and New Delhi among others at their own cost.

"We are undertaking vaccination drive in major centres. For those employees who are working from native places in hinterland, will be inoculated once they return to their cities of operation if they have not been vaccinated. The target is to look at reopening from October onwards," said an official of an engineering services firm.

Around 95 per cent of Indian employees are currently operating from remote locations. IT firms have the necessary security approvals from clients for such remote operating model.

However, things are slowly changing as normalcy is gradually returning in the US and many European countries. As a major percentage of US population has been vaccinated, establishments have opened up with travel also restored in that country. Things are also improving in the UK, France, Germany and many more European countries. Such normalcy in key markets is likely to create more demand for IT work, necessitating sending engineers from India for implementing project related work.

Experts, therefore, said complete vaccination would be a sure way of sending employees abroad in case need arises.

Domestic companies are already anticipating rising travel and utility cost in the second half of this financial year.

"As the year progresses in the second half and as vaccine starts rolling out, things like travel will open and some of these costs at the tail end will come up," Nilanjan Roy, Chief Financial Officer at Infosys had said during the post-earnings call.

Though some employees are likely to start working from offices from October onwards, a major chunk will not be called back as Indian corporate houses are wary of any new outbreak of the pandemic, officials said.