Omicron is not derailing back to office plans of Indian IT companies

As the Omicron spread its tentacles beyond southern Africa, the World Health Organisation sounded an alarm. It said the new strain was a “variant of concern”. But, later, health experts in South Africa -- where the variant was first detected -- said that patients have shown mild symptoms, and most of them didn’t even need hospitalisation.

So, as the initial worries faded and markets started gaining ground, the IT companies in India refused to put a break on their back-to-office plan. But all the precautionary measures are still in place. Most companies are continuing with their policy of banning overseas trips and allowing only essential travel within India for executives. 

In the middle of a staggered opening, India’s top IT firms are placing greater emphasis on precautionary measures such as vaccination, social distancing, masking and sanitisation. 

Almost all the companies have got their employees vaccinated. And they are continuing with the hybrid work model, calling a portion of their staff to the office while allowing others to work from home.

About 20% of Tech Mahindra’s staff is back in office. And a section of employees of HCL Technologies are back too. Having said that, the trend of hybrid work is set to continue. This is when employees visit the office on some days and work from home on the rest.

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A reason companies are not willing to once again go back to a permanent work from home model is because they believe it will make it harder to preserve company culture. 

Apart from this, all of India’s industries including manufacturing, retail, entertainment have completely opened up. With schools slowly opening up in several states, employees with children are also willing to work from offices. 

More importantly, after 18 months of working from home during the pandemic, employees, especially freshers, are keen on a change of scene. This in turn has bolstered companies to go ahead with a phased return to the office workspace.

All said, back to office plans are not something that can be implemented in a day. Rather, it is a process that will take months, starting with a hybrid work model. Companies will now reconsider their plans only if the Covid-19 turns into a serious threat again, mandating a lockdown. As of now, work from home seems to be the new normal again. 

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