Covid-19: India Inc puts back-to-office plans on the backburner, prepares for WFH 2.0

With the rise in covid cases, many corporate and multinational companies are going back to the work-from-home norm. The decision of shifting back to work-from-home was triggered by the second wave of covid-19. Companies are sending their employees advisories on covid safety protocol and work from home provisions.

As most states impose lockdown or curfews, companies are considering going back to work-from-home culture, so that their operations continue without risking the safety of their employees.

Himankshi, who works at Deloitte’s Gurgaon office, has been working from home ever since the Covid-19 lockdown was imposed last year. After the resurgence of the cases in April 2021, the company has extended its work from home policy till the 22nd of January 2022. The company has also assured that it will provide allowances and support to its employee, to help them create a seamless functioning of their work-from-home setups.

Trend across sectors

Another leading construction company Larson and Toubro (L&T) also issued an advisory on 19th April to its staff at the Faridabad Campus. The advisory said, that the campus will operate with 50% of its manpower strength till 30th April 2021. The modalities of which will be finalized by the company’s HR. Once the situation is reviewed by end of April, they will decide on the further course of action accordingly. The company has extended work from home for employees to concise its employee strength inside the campus as a precautionary measure.

Like L&T, other leading companies like VMware, Infosys, Amazon, TCS, Dunzo, Policy Bazar, Byjus, Raymond, Book my show have also extended their work from home policy.

The peak in cases is really high this time, and the situation is getting worse every day. Hence to revive work-from-home is the need of the hour. As the companies are taking this precautionary measure, employees are getting used to this norm. Some companies have already created the flexibility for the employees to allow them permanent remote working features in their employment. With covid around, the remote working is here to stay for a while and modify the working structure for India Inc.