The workforce of IT and ITES firms in Hyderabad is unlikely to return to office anytime soon as a survey by Hyderabad Software Enterprises Association (HYSEA) found that Work From Home (WFH) will continue, albeit to a lesser extent, well beyond 2021.
A trend bound to impact other sectors and service providers dependent on the firms, WFH could well be here to stay as the survey, involving 62 member-companies, said none of the respondents spoke of 100% employees switching to work from office.
One factor behind this could be the limited impact on productivity levels. “More than 63% companies reported above 90% productivity, compared to pre-pandemic levels. A few reported above 100% productivity,” the survey report said. What is likely to make return to office a complex, time consuming process is 25-50% employees working from their native places (outside Hyderabad).
The number is high and it is anybody’s guess when and how many will relocate to Hyderabad, the release from HYSEA on Friday said.
Return to office will thus be very gradual and will peak towards the end of 2021. It will never be 100%, it said. This despite work environment at home remaining the single largest factor impacting WFH. Power cuts and broadband limitations were other issues.
On the work from office (WFO) plans, the survey said 60% of companies plan to have less than 20% of workforce operating from office by end of March. It might increase to 40% by June. By December 2021, WFO percentage for large and very large companies is likely to be 50-70%.
Vaccination drive
The IT/ITeS sector in Hyderabad is bracing for a prolonged process of employees’ return to office that might extend beyond 2021. The success of soon-to-be started vaccination drive was critical to return to office planning and therefore, the process is likely to gain momentum only in the latter half of 2021, the release said.
For now, WFH percentage remains high. Nearly 75% of large (headcount of 1,000-5,000) and very large companies (over 5,000 employees) reported work from office to be 0-5%. Two models are preferred when return to office picks up pace — one in which only essential employees WFO and another Partial Week WFO.
Some large Indian IT/ITeS companies, however, said client imperatives were driving them towards asking workforce to return to office. “Some of them have even said it could be made mandatory when the time comes. But GICs (Global Inhouse Centres) took a more expected approach of voluntary return to office,” the report said.
In this backdrop, majority of the companies do not anticipate any increase in office space requirement post return to office. In the past nine months, 20% of large and very large companies terminated some office space, 6% terminated lease fully while 3% of the respondents said they leased some new space anticipating growth.
“Only very few cases of stress and inclusivity issues were observed during the prolonged WFH. Many companies handled the situation well with proactive measures,” HYSEA said.