TCS ends work-from-home, but some employees can rejoice

Top IT service provider Tata Consultancy Services is moving its employees back to office, but with a rider. Not everyone will have to go back to work, under the company’s hybrid model that it plans to implement by 2025.

As part of the model, only 25 per cent of TCS staff will need to work from office at any point of time, and employees will not have to spend more than 25 per cent of their time at work.

TCS CEO Rajesh Gopinathan talked about the 25X25 formula, which will be especially beneficial for young mothers and women who are caring for the elderly. It will also open vistas for those in tier 2 and 3 cites looking for remote work.

“Our customers are comfortable with this model and want us to take on more work that others are not able to handle. This has given us the confidence to come out with a bold new Vision 25×25. Under this model, the company is expecting only 1.12 lakh to work from office by 2025,” the CEO was quoted as saying in a media report, further pointing to improved productivity and work-life balance as the main reasons behind the model.

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TCS, which employs more than 5 lakh people, recently announced that it is planning to call 90 per cent of the workforce to office by December this year or the beginning of next year. A company spokesperson said that more than 90 per cent of employees and their families had already received the first COVID vaccine jab and were going to get the second dose soon.

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Wipro, Nasscom, HCL Technology and Infosys are among other IT giants that have called staff back to office. Early this month, Wipro chairman Rishad Premji announced the plan to have employees back in office. “After 18 long months, our leaders @Wipro are coming back to the office starting tomorrow (twice a week). All fully vaccinated, all ready to go – safely and socially distanced,” he tweeted.

TCS has offices in 250 locations across 50 countries, and the company is yet to explore the logistics of the hybrid model – for instance, what happens to its physical assets such as offices if not all employees are in attendance.

Work from home will also hit India’s commercial real estate business, with the IT sector accounting for 40 per cent of office leases.