The majority of workers at the nation's top IT services firms are searching for more adaptable employment opportunities even as their employers have begun to ask them to come back to the office, according to a recent survey.
According to a survey by staffing services company CIEL HR Services, about 88% of workers in leading IT companies are prepared to leave their current positions.
Their current employers want them to return to offices, so approximately 46% of them, primarily working mothers and caregivers, are looking for work from home (WFH) opportunities, while another 46% are open to leaving for positions with higher pay.
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The remaining 8% want to leave because they find their employer's requirement that they report back to work to be constrictive and prevent them from pursuing other interests and hobbies without having to spend more time commuting, etc.
“Return to offices curtails their independence and affects their lifestyle,” Aditya Misra, chief executive of CIEL, told ET.
Early in October, CIEL conducted a study on talent mobility in the IT industry with 1,000 participants from 19 top IT companies.
Despite a slight slowdown in hiring, recruitment services experts warned that resignation threats made by workers in response to employer requests to return to the office might not be effective in the current job market.
Staffing companies Adecco and Xpheno officials said they anticipate most employees toeing the line when called back to the office.
“Threats of this nature might have had teeth a few months back in the candidate controlled job market,” said Anil Ethanur, cofounder at Xpheno. But now, with fewer jobs chasing talent and more employers returning to hybrid or work from the office (WFO), candidates have fewer choices for full time WFH, he said.
“If anything, threats to quit in response to WFO can at best be a paper tiger in the current scenario,” Ethanur said.
In a remote working environment, IT companies face a variety of difficulties, according to experts.
“On one hand, they are facing a slowdown in new orders and even in the pace of existing projects. On the other hand, they are worried about moonlighting (among employees) and concerned about employee productivity,” said Misra of CIEL.
Leading IT firms have started urging staff to come back to work.
At the company's second quarter results briefing earlier this week, HCL Tech's chief people officer Ramachandran Sundararajan stated that the company encourages employees to come to the office three days per week.
Employees at TCS are also expected to come to offices three days a week while Infosys is allowing employees to work from home with no mandated fixed number of days in office.
Numerous IT workers who had relocated to their hometowns or other locations away from the office location during the pandemic find it particularly difficult to return to work, according to experts.
“With most companies mandating employees to come to offices for at least three days a week, there is certainly a resistance from a fraction of employees,” Adecco India director Ramesh Alluri Reddy said. “From a company perspective, they are losing out on culture in a remote working set up,” he added.
