India’s largest IT services company Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has requested employees to return to office by November 15, 2021, the company said in a statement. Last week, TCS said that 70% of TCS employees were fully vaccinated, and 95% of them had received at least one dose. As things currently stand, 5% of the company’s associates work from office, it said.
The company had earlier announced its 25/25 model last year, when only 25% of the company’s employees would need to work out of office at any point and that no employee would spend more than 25% of their time in office — and it aimed to achieve this by 2025. Now, TCS said it aims to bring a majority of its employees back, and systematically reduce the number of people who will need to come to the office.
“Towards the end of CY’21, we will encourage our associates to return to offices, at least initially, before we switch to the 25/25 model. This will be done in a phased and flexible manner and will depend on respective team leaders & the requirements of each team/ project,” TCS said in a statement.
The company said it was committed to the 25/25 model, but wanted to bring people back first. “As a preparation for coming back to office, we have requested our employees to plan to get back to their deputed location (their base branch) by November 15, 2021. The return to office will be a calibrated move taking employee safety to consideration,” the statement read.
The model, TCS said in its statement, is an important design element but it will take a couple of years to implement.
In the new ‘Future Of Work’, both the physical office & remote working will play an integral part. Eventually, everybody will have to come to office for a period and at the same time, they will have the flexibility to work from home. At the end, whatever we do, it will be fully taking into consideration employees’ safety, health, and well-being,” it said.
The company added that most of its offices across India as well as globally are open currently and COVID-19 protocols are followed.