Work from Home will be the new normal

How the Industry is coping with COVID 19

Looking at the COVID 19 social distancing circumstance and the crisis management response, TCS, (TATA Consultancy Services Ltd), the country’s biggest multinational information technology service and consulting company, has announced that after the lockdown is lifted, it would enable 75% of its active workforce to operate from home.

Incorporated in 1968, this is a tremendous leap of faith for TCS that has a present-day headcount of 4.48 lakh, employed across the world, including the 3.5 lakh Indian employees.

The industry average of #WorkFromHome employees is 20%! The TCS model will remain in place till at least 2025, the company announced, while making it clear that it is a measure taken in the interest of ensuring the health and safety of its employees.  

Additionally, the model, named 25/25 will demand less office space, and significantly fewer overheads for the company, which is great saving during a tough business cycle that lies ahead for all.

Apparently, the Chief Operating Officer (CEO) of TCS, NG Subramaniam has done his maths before making the pronouncement and asserts that the IT major does not require more than 25% of its employee base on the floor in order to maintain 100% productivity!

Typically, TCS is not just physically shifting his employees from office to their home space with an efficient device connect; there is a lot more to it. It’s recasting its whole way of conducting business with its internal and external stakeholders.

"It is about taking the entire element of the operating model and being able to deploy that into this kind of an extended environment we call SBWS," he said, where SBWS is a  new acronym coined by TCS for secure borderless workspaces (SBWS) model, reported Business Today in Post-COVID, 75% of 4.5 lakh TCS employees to permanently work from home by '25; from 20%.  

To implement the SBWS model, the organization has altered its cyber safety protocol;  project administration practices, and structures to enable appropriate work distribution;  reporting, and monitoring in order to ensure uncompromised project value and quality scrutiny.

The company is banking on the bullish premise that is all projects get delivered on time through the new work model, it may manage to duck any adverse impact of the global #COVID19 crisis.

Examples of other companies

The HR heads of numerous other companies are also beginning to realize that #WFH can work, if implemented with a lot of forward and backward integration. World over the results to #WFH are optimistic. #WFH not just saves commuting time, it also cuts costs and results in better productivity, if managed well!

In India, HR heads of top corporations such as Bank of Baroda, EY, RPG Group, Paytm, Cognizant, Axis Bank, Saint-Gobain India, Titan, Vedanta, Deloitte, Whirlpool are aligned on this subject and are working on introducing their own, custom models of TCS’s SBWS model.

“#Workfromhome is here to stay,” says Rajkamal Vempati, Executive Vice President & Head - Human Resources, Axis Bank in Economic Times’ Workfromhome going to stay, even after Covid-19 scare is over, estimating that as many as20% to 30% of their employees could to shifted to their version of a #WFH model over the coming months.  

“#Workfromhome is here to stay,” says Rajkamal Vempati, Executive Vice President & Head - Human Resources, Axis Bank in Economic Times’ Workfromhome going to stay, even after Covid-19 scare is over, estimating that as many as20% to 30% of their employees could to shifted to their version of a #WFH model over the coming months.  

Going forward, Sandeep Kohli, Partner and Talent Leader at EY India and Joydeep Dutta Roy, Head, Strategic HR, and HR Integration at Bank of Baroda are confident that #WFH is going to be the new normal for a post-COVID19 work scenario.

EasyHR offers Work From Home module

To be sure, at EasyHR are also receiving a lot of queries on what HR software could be a best-case fit for their #WFH set-up. Therefore, if you too are thinking of shifting your workforce to #WFH model, get in touch with us today.  

Register for a Free Demo OR a FREE TRIAL with us.