IT firms in Hyderabad not to insist staff on vaccination

Hyderabad: Even as multi-national companies (MNCs) like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft are mandating fully vaccinated employees in office space, IT companies locally aren’t keen to do so.

While, many IT companies in Hyderabad – large, medium, and small – are not mandating fully vaccinated employees to return to the office, they are encouraging techies to get vaccinated as soon as possible and are following all safety protocols in workspaces.

“Our office surveyed employees on return to office scenario. Post that, they have told us that once the majority of the employees are vaccinated then only will they be looking at opening up offices for physical interaction. This will take time as many are still waiting to get their second dose and it may not be till October that this will happen,” says a 30-year-old employee with a large MNC in Hyderabad.

Not just large enterprises, but even smaller IT companies are keen to get their employees vaccinated and many vaccination drives have been conducted for the same. Majority of the companies are going for a hybrid model wherein none of them are mandating employees to come to workspaces. In case an employee needs or wants to come to a physical office space, then they are told to follow all safety protocols.

“Most large companies have facilitated vaccination drives for employees and families and smaller companies are encouraging full vaccination. Nobody is stopping employees from coming to work just because they aren’t fully vaccinated. It is not fair to mandate full vaccination as people in India do not have vaccine hesitancy which is prevalent in some parts of the US and western Europe,” says Bipin Chandra Dutt Pendyala, COO, Invenio Business Solutions, and managing committee member, Hysea.

There were also reports about a few companies rewarding and incentivising employees who are fully vaccinated globally, but employees from India centres haven’t heard of it yet. An employee working for an American MNC in Hyderabad informed that while her company has said that only vaccinated employees will be allowed into office spaces once they open doors in January next year, they haven’t been informed about any kind of bonus or incentives to be given for vaccinated employees.

Pendyala also believes that the culture of incentivising and rewarding is not appropriate in the Indian scenario as people are keen to get vaccinated here. “The vaccination drive for 18 and above started only in June and a majority of IT employees are below 40. So while many have got their first dose, the second dose is taking time and that is why companies are taking a slow and steady approach in calling back employees,” he said.

---

Now you can get handpicked stories from Telangana Today on Telegram everyday. Click the link to subscribe.

Click to follow Telangana Today Facebook page and Twitter .

---