‘50 per cent IT employees to return to office by July’

Hyderabad: In the last few weeks, IT companies, both large and small, are calling employees back to office in a phased manner. While some companies are already operating at full capacity, some are looking at calling employees only two to three days a week while some others are offering employees come to office whenever required. […]

Hyderabad: In the last few weeks, IT companies, both large and small, are calling employees back to office in a phased manner. While some companies are already operating at full capacity, some are looking at calling employees only two to three days a week while some others are offering employees come to office whenever required.

With the Covid situation stabilizing and mask mandates being relaxed along with schools reopening, many IT employees are slowly making their way to office. In Hyderabad, almost 20-25 per cent of employees are now working from office and this figure is set to go up in the coming few days. Industry representatives say the percentage of employees returning to office is set to go up to 40 per cent in the next three months.

Telangana Facilities Management Council president Satyanarayana Mathala said they were seeing at least 5 per cent more employees returning to office every week.

“Currently, the return to office percentage stands at 25 per cent and this is all set to go up to 40 per cent by June or July,” he said.

Hyderabad Software Enterprises Association (Hysea) president Bharani K Aroll said that as per surveys done by the association, in the last two to three weeks, the return to office statistics have improved significantly.

“About 70 per cent of offices are fully opened and they are voluntarily asking employees to come to office. We are anticipating that by July, 50 per cent of employees will return to office and this number will go up to 70-80 per cent by December, if the current Covid situation continues to prevail,” Aroll said.

He also informed that there were about 1,500 IT companies operating in Hyderabad and in the small and medium scale enterprises, about 80 per cent of employees were working from offices with many working five days a week. In medium-size companies, this number hoverered between 30 per cent and 50 per cent.

“In the last two years, employees have become sceptical about new waves and have also got used to working from home. This will need some re-adjustment challenges from the employees’ side,” Aroll said.

Hostels urge IT employees to come back

The city’s IT corridor is home to close to 3,500 hostels and provides accommodation to about three lakh IT employees. In addition, hostels in Kondapur, Madhapur and Hitec City are also providing direct employment to over 1 lakh people and indirectly employing over 1.5 lakh people. However, these hostels are silent for the last two years, all thanks to Covid.

Now, with many companies reopening their office spaces and asking employees to return to office, these hostels are seeing a ray of hope. Before Covid, they used to work at 90 per cent occupancy. “But now, we are struggling to fill even 10 per cent. It is not only impacting our business but is also impacting the livelihood of people dependent on us. As all big and small companies are asking employees to work from office, we are also urging them to come back to Hyderabad,” said Amarnath Reddy, president, IT corridor Hostels Association.

According to Reddy and other representatives, hostels are taking all precautionary and preventive measures and following Covid guidelines to make hostels a safe place for residents. From having regular sanitization and hygiene protocols in place to having temperature reading measures, these hostels have put in the extra effort.

Some of the hostels, according to Reddy, have high bandwidth of Wi-Fi to facilitate work from home for employees along with meals three times a day and housekeeping and security professionals round the clock.

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