India Inc Gets To Work As It Starts Designing Return To Office Toolkit

Wipro Chairman Rishad Premji on Sunday said the company’s “leaders” will start returning to office from Monday. “After 18 long months, our leaders @Wipro are coming back to office, starting Monday (twice a week). All fully vaccinated, all ready to go — safely and socially distanced,” Premji said in a tweet. A year and a half into the pandemic, India Inc is taking tentative steps to bring employees back to office. But it is being done slowly, and on a voluntary basis, with many saying they will take a call on the matter only at the end of the year. Social media giant Facebook is preparing for a staggered opening up of its offices in India from next month. In the US, though, the company will decide whether or not to open offices only in January next year. “We are currently on a mandatory work-from-home. But starting October, we will allow 25 per cent of employees to return to the Gurugram office,” says a spokesperson for the company. Cab aggregator Uber India has planned a hybrid work strategy from January 10 next year. “We are asking those working in offices to spend at least 50 per cent of their time there every month. Our employees can work from their preferred location, choosing from a list of dedicated hubs,” says a spokesperson. Executives at South Korean electronics giant, Samsung, say they have increased the cap on employees in their large corporate offices from 10 per cent when the lockdown was lifted, to 33 per cent. To ensure safety, rosters of staff are made two weeks in advance, and they can come to office only after undergoing an antigen test each time. Search engine Google has been in the public eye after it introduced a work location tool in the US that allows employees working from home to determine its impact on their pay package. Sources say the move could lead to a cut in salary of up to 25 per cent for many employees and some believe that the system may be implemented in India, too. ALSO READ: 'Everyone is scared': Govt's criticism of Infosys, Tata worries India Inc But a spokesperson for Google India says, “Outside the US, each country currently has a single compensation category, so there is no difference in pay, whether you are fully remote or an in-office employee.” E-commerce player Amazon India says its employees at supply chain and warehouses are already back. “We continue to monitor the situation closely. Right now, we are asking employees in roles which can be done effectively from home to continue to do so till January 3 next year,” says the spokesperson for the company. Indian information technology (IT) companies, which had been votaries of work-from-home during the lockdowns, are also putting in place strategies to bring their employees back to office. Rajesh Gopinathan, chief executive officer and managing director of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), in a recent media interaction, said the company plans to get 75 per cent of its employees back to the workplace by the end of the year.

TCS expects a majority of its employees to be double vaccinated by then.