Over 50% of workforce likely to return to offices thrice a week by Jan: Nasscom-Indeed report

About 50% of the workforce in India is likely to return to offices for up to 3 days a week starting next year, according to a report titled ‘Nasscom Return to Workplace Survey’ by Nasscom in association with Indeed.

The report is developed basis a return to workplace surveys conducted by Nasscom focused on both tech employees and tech employers on their plans on return to offices. The report aims at understanding the expectations, key considerations, and preparedness on both fronts (employers and employees) for return to the workplace and further analyzes different future operating models emerging in a hybrid setup.

Primarily, the junior and senior management (workforce under the age of 25 and above 40 years) are eager to return to the workplace as compared to the middle management. The report also states that female employees are also excited about returning to offices and adapting to newer working models.

Further, the survey states that over 81% of organizations expressed that employee health and safety remains the key consideration for them while reopening the offices. However, 72% of organizations are looking at operating at a maximum of 50% employee capacity starting next year itself.

In the post-pandemic era, companies are looking forward to implementing newer work operating models. Today, the hybrid work model is the preferred choice by over 70% of organizations as per the report data findings. IT services and global capability centres (GCCs) are likely to be early adopters of a long-term hybrid work model.

“Over the last one and a half years, the way tech organizations have run business operations has undergone a massive transformation. The industry is now prepared to gradually re-open and looking at perfecting a hybrid operating model which brings in the best of both onsite and remote operating models. We encourage tech companies to process the reopening in a phased and safe manner while keeping the employee health and safety as the topmost priority,” said Debjani Ghosh, president, Nasscom.

Organizations and employees have gradually realized that remote work is an outcome of the pandemic and not an evolved approach to workplace planning. “In fact, Indeed’s last hiring tracker indicated that employees are looking for more ‘flexible’ workplaces that will enable work-home balance,” said Sashi Kumar, head of Sales, India, Indeed.com.