Bengaluru’s rain-related infra woes reignite WFH debate

As employers look to bring employees back to the office, the floods in Bengaluru’s IT corridor have reignited the work-from-home (WFH) debate.

Visuals of water-logged roads, citizens being rescued on boats and tractors, and employees stuck on a foot-over-bridge outside one of the city’s tech parks are feeding into this debate. Representatives of IT companies and industry bodies also met state IT minister Ashwath Narayan, who has promised to resolve issues by next year's monsoons.

For now, Wipro and TCS, among others, have given employees the option of working from home.

"All our associates at Bengaluru are safe. We are closely monitoring the situation and our delivery teams have been advised to exercise due caution," a TCS spokesperson said.

Experts say that come rain or shine, hybrid work — a mix of WFH and office — will continue.

Rituparna Chakraborty, founder, Teamlease Services, said the situation in Bengaluru is not likely to have any larger impact. A similar situation had happened in 2019 as well, she said.

Hybrid work the new reality

Harshvendra Soin, global chief people officer and head-marketing, Tech Mahindra, told Moneycontrol that employee well-being is a priority, and associates continue to have the flexibility to work from anywhere. “We expect this trend of hybrid working to ramp up,” he said.

Infosys HR head and EVP Richard Lobo told Moneycontrol the future of work is hybrid, and the company’s approach to return to work is balanced with “a focus on employee well-being and business continuity.”

“Through the use of technology, we would like to build on our experience over the past couple of years to offer our employees more freedom around when to work and where, as well as a wider choice of options around work facilities and teams,” he said, adding that the hybrid model being envisioned by Infosys enables wider access to talent.

“I believe a hybrid work environment — seamlessly working from home and office — will be the new reality, and Infosys is prepared for this, as well as ready to help our employees prepare for it. We recognise that it takes a bit of time to get used to the new way of doing things, but it’s the future,” he said.

Queries sent to L&T Infotech, HCL Technologies and Accenture didn't elicit responses at the time of publication.

Return to work will continue

One of the factors believed to hinder employees' willingness to return to work is shoddy infrastructure in larger cities such as Bengaluru, as it adds to the woes of the daily commute and other difficulties.

Aditya Narayan Mishra, CEO, CIEL HR Services, says that incidents such as the recent floods in Bengaluru and other infrastructure-related problems can deter people from coming to work. They would rather remain in their hometowns and enjoy a better standard of living.

On the other hand, Teamlease's  Chakraborty says the reasons for returning to work go beyond issues with commute.

“There is a huge case to be made in terms of why being in office, around your colleagues, your team, matters for your mental health, builds social capital, and improves the quality of engagement and ideation,” she said.

She added that people may have their own reasons for choosing to go back to the office. For instance, some people may not have the luxury of working from home.

Returning to office is a welcome change, but people want the flexibility of choosing when to go in. “There are some who want to permanently work from home, but more and more want to go to the office a few days of the week,” she said.

In fact, she explained that companies prefer senior leadership to be in office, because it is an important signal. “Most leaders also prefer to be in office,” she added.

CIEL's Mishra believes the future is going to be a mix of people who will be completely working remotely, some who will come to office some days of the week, and some who will be happy to come to office every day.

With employees preferring a hybrid work arrangement, the manager needs to have the skills required to manage a team remotely, Mishra said.

“The solution is to train your managers to manage a remote team. The  solution is not to force everybody to come to the office and make them commute two hours. You will lose people if you do that,” he said.

Infrastructure woes

K. S. Viswanathan, VP, Industry Initiatives, National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM), who was among the people who met the IT minister to discuss the industry’s issues, told Moneycontrol that while only 30 percent of employees are returning to office, more would like to. The rains have had no impact on this, he said.

“Many people, especially youngsters, freshers joining the workforce, want to come to office," Vishwanathan said, adding that while the infrastructure has not been able to keep pace with the city’s exponential growth, the city was now augmenting the infrastructure, like the metro, roads, public transport, etc.

Despite the troubles India's Silicon Valley has faced recently due to the rains, Teamlease's Chakraborty says it is a blip, and that Bengaluru will continue to be the most attractive place in India for any job seeker or employer.