After Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), state-owned Power Finance Corporation Limited (PFC) is mulling the option of work from home once the lockdown to tackle COVID-19 ends.
India largest IT exporter, TCS plans to ask a vast majority of 75% of its 4.5 lakh employees globally (including 3.5 lakh in India) to work from home by 2025, up from the industry average of 20% today, through a new model called 25/25, which would require far less office space than occupied today.
More Indian companies are likely to follow suit soon.
“We believe that work-life balance is important for enhancing the efficiency of an employee. Since this is a new concept for PSUs, we can explore giving WFH beyond the lockdown to our employees,” said P.K. Singh, Director (Commercial) in-charge of HR – Power Finance Corporation Limited. “Taking a cue from what we have learned during this lock down, work from home can be the order of the day in the coming days. Further, PSUs like PFC can introduce flexi working system. This will create a new work culture and environment. As a result, We will end up with enhanced productivity, increased motivation and work life balance,” he added.
PFC currently has around 300 employees. Since a majority of the workforce is professionally qualified, they are all well-versed with systems.
“Earlier too, the company performed its operations online, but within the confines of office premises. Thus, work from home [WFH] is just an advancement in the use of technology from a remote location. In the current situation, it is the need of the hour. So, employees are making best use of their knowledge and the facilities provided to them by PFC,” said Mr. Singh.
PFC has ensured that none of the work is being postponed or delayed due to the current situation. For an NBFC like PFC, closure of a financial year is the most critical time. The employees rose to the occasion and made exceptional contribution during the last few days of the financial year 2019-20 after the lockdown was announced.
Speaking on the advantages of the WFH model, Singh said, “For a PSU, one needs to evaluate the mechanism. The model definitely helps in cutting off the travel time and in an urban set-up, that might account for nearly 2 to 3 hours of the daily schedule. PFC already has the IT set-up and provisions for employees to be allowed to WFH in future as well. Post the lockdown, the situation may be evaluated with the help of HR unit and accordingly, a decision can be taken,” he said.
According to Mr. Singh, PFC has already provided laptops to the entire workforce. The Virtual Private Network connections were enabled and video-conferencing application was provided to employees for collaboration like video-calling, file sharing and chat purposes.
