TCS asks employees to return to office at least thrice a week

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has asked employees to work in the office for at least three days a week, according to an internal mail shared with employees.

“Senior leaders of TCS have been working from TCS offices for a while now and our customers are also visiting TCS offices… Your respective managers will now roster you to work from the TCS office for at least 3 days in a week,” the company said in the mail. “Adherence to rostering is mandatory and will be tracked… any noncompliance will be taken seriously, and administrative measures may be applied.”

The $25 billion IT company, a part of the Tata Group, confirmed that most of its senior associates already work from their offices or client locations.

“All employees have been advised to return to the base locations where they were operating before the pandemic. Those employees who have sought and got transfers will operate from the changed locations,” a TCS spokesperson told Moneycontrol.

Though there is no deadline for the return-to-office plan, TCS advised employees to contact their managers immediately to “understand the arrangements made for the projects with regard to return to office.”

Rostering will be done based on project requirements and will include a mix of freshers and experienced professionals, TCS spokesperson said.

More than 90 percent of its employees are vaccinated and about 25 percent of its associates work from the office at least two days of the week.

Regarding the flexibility allowed to employees who want to work from home, TCS said, “We have initiated the process of a phased transition from TCS’ Secure Borderless Workspaces (SBWS) to a more hybrid model where most of our associates will work some days of the week from our offices. Our internal processes have been suitably modified to enable and encourage this transition.”

The 25/25 model

Under the company’s 25/25 model, no more than 25 percent of the employees would need to work out of its offices at a time and they would not have to spend more than 25 percent of their time there.

TCS also said that more than 25 percent of the team of any project may not be located in one single location.

“We have been receiving emails since mid-May this year about returning to the office. However, fewer employees have done so,” a TCS staffer said on condition of anonymity.

“Despite our PM’s emphasis on flexible workplaces, the work-from-home ecosystem, and flexible work hours, it seems companies are in no mood to extend the work-from-home policy,” said Harpreet Singh Saluja, president of the Pune-based labour union NITES.

TCS has said its plan in the 25/25 model is to get employees working in office to regular levels, or at least 80 percent, before implementing a structured hybrid working model by 2025.

TCS has about 600,000 employees globally. The company reported an attrition rate of 19.7 percent in the first quarter (April-June) of FY23, which was the highest in six quarters. Its net addition of employees declined to 14,000 in the first quarter from 24,000 a year earlier. Moneycontrol