Lack of transport and office space makes companies stick to work from home

Lack of public transport for employees to reach office is a major hurdle for companies to resume normal office routine

Lack of public transport and adherence to social distancing norms in offices is dampening offices to open up even as the Centre and some states have allowed offices to start functioning with varied levels of manpower.

While allowing private offices to start functioning from June 8, various states have capped personnel which can be deployed in offices. Maharashtra, the financial capital of India and also a Covid-19 hotbed, has capped attendance at private offices at 10 per cent while in Delhi NCR, there is a 33 per cent cap in private offices. However, West Bengal, to boost economic activities in the state, had initially allowed 100 per cent attendance in private offices but later left it to the individual management of companies to take the final call.

Companies across segments cited that public transport needs to be made available first before employees can resume their normal office routine.

For example, the second largest cement manufacturer, Shree Cement has opened its offices but is finding it hard to deploy the workforce to the maximum extent possible.

“Only those having their own vehicles can come to the office. But unless public transport, including local trains and the metro rail start functioning, employees cannot resume their normal office schedule”, H.M. Bangur, managing director at Shree Cement said.

Industry officials from the FMCG segment also share a same feeling. 

Although offices are at will to arrange for their own transport to ferry employees, it may not be a cost effective option given the social distancing norms to be followed.

Bus services have already commenced in major cities like Delhi, Kolkata, Banglore and others with a cap on passengers ranging from 20-30 as per the respective state guidelines. The restriction on bus capacity, however, is deterring movement of office-goers. Metro railways and local trains, however, continue to remain suspended.

Moreover, space in offices is another dampener. An industry official from the FMCG segment said that the seating arrangements in offices across companies are mostly done in a way that the full workforce cannot be deployed if social distancing norms are to be followed.

“It requires substantial changes in the seating arrangement and even with that, the full workforce cannot be deployed”, an industry official from the FMCG segment said.

Thus, companies are increasingly encouraging employees to work from home.

“We continue to review that situation regularly. Our offices are in a state of readiness with stringent precautionary measures including hygiene and sanitation protocols. As of now, presence in offices continues to be restricted to only where work from home cannot be performed from home”, Amitav Mukherjee, head of corporate human resources at ITC Ltd said.

Biplab Bakshi, director – HR at Dabur said that they have also resumed operations with limited workforce in office. “An employee handbook has been shared with all employees before the office reopened providing detailed guidelines on coming back to office”, he said.

Gurgaon headquartered Nestle India is maintaining status quo.

“Our office-based employees largely continue to work from home. Only those specific employees who have critical activities that necessitates their presence at workplace have been allowed recently to visit the office if needed and if all precautions are followed”, a Nestle India spokesperson said.

A Welspun spokesperson said that it will open its offices in a phased manner with 10 per cent of required workforce present on a rotational basis.

Marico is also reviewing to open its Mumbai office towards the end of the month.

“With the health and safety of our members as a top priority, we plan to open our offices in a phased manner. We will review our decision to open the Mumbai office only towards the end of June and shall continue working from home until then. We have resumed operations on a minimal presence basis, in our offices in other locations where the government has given the permission to open”, Amit Prakash, chief human resources officer at Marico said.

Anshu Budhraja, CEO at Amway India said, “While predominant bias will be for staff to work remotely, employees will be allowed to work from workplace only if work demands or there are genuine issues in working from home, subject to prior approval of the head of department and the limit for such no. of employees will not exceed 1/3rd or as stated by the Government guidelines”. Amway has extended work from home for its employees till July 31.

However, sources suggested that in wake of the Unlock phases, companies across segments are hopeful of more relaxations including cap on transport.

For example, while the West Bengal government has earlier capped passenger capacity in buses at 20 people, it has relaxed norms to accommodate people to the full seating capacity. Airlines have also resumed functioning.