Wipro Asks Staff To Work From Office Thrice A Week In Shift From Covid-Era WFH
Wipro’s hybrid work policy follows similar moves by larger peers to make employees return to office.
Wipro Ltd. is enforcing a hybrid work policy in yet another signal of the end of the pandemic-era work from home.
After Diwali, all employees of India’s fourth largest IT services firm have to work from office at least three times a week, a Wipro spokesperson told BQ Prime in an email.
“Since May of this year, we have been encouraging our employees to work from the office three times a week. Currently, 55% of our employees are coming to the office three days a week,” the spokesperson said.
“Recognising the immense benefits of in-person collaboration and innovation, we are now taking the next step in our workplace policy evolution and requiring all employees to work from the office three days a week, effective Nov. 15, 2023.”
Wipro’s hybrid work policy follows similar moves by larger peers to make employees return to office after three years of work from home due to the pandemic. While Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. has mandated all employees to return to office for a full five-day workweek, Infosys Ltd. wants its lower-level employees to be in office at least 10 days a month.
The moves are crucial, for they come at a time when India’s $245-billion IT services industry is likely to record a rare decline in overall employee base in the fiscal ending March 2024. Fresher hiring by IT firms is also likely to halve in the ongoing financial year.
Headcount of India’s top-tier outsourcers declined by a net 18,112 employees in the quarter ended September, according to earnings statements. Only LTIMindtree Ltd. (794) and Tech Mahindra Ltd. (2,307) clocked net additions. That translates to a nearly 40% decline for the full year, according to NLB Services. In absolute terms, the net hiring by top-tier IT firms has witnessed a drop of at least 2,50,000 in FY24.
But attrition rates have eased to pre-pandemic levels on a trailing 12-month basis. The utilisation levels have improved as employees have returned to office after three years of work from home.
The decline in headcount comes when Indian outsourcers are bracing for a slowdown, if not a washout, in the financial year ending March 2024, as enterprises in the U.S. and beyond curb technology spending to cope with high interest rates and inflation.
While Infosys, HCLTech and Wipro have revised lower their revenue growth expectations for FY24, TCS has warned of single-digit growth. Tech Mahindra Ltd. is set for a reorganisation under new Chief Executive Officer Mohit Joshi to claw back some of the operational profitability lost in the first half of fiscal 2024.
Several of these companies—including Infosys, HCLTech and Wipro—deferred salary hikes by a quarter to shore up operational profitability amid uncertain dealmaking.
On Monday, shares of Wipro Ltd. rose 0.33% to Rs 384.75 apiece on the BSE even as the benchmark Sensex ended the day 0.92% higher at 64,958.69 points.