The Best Companies To Work For In India

Engaged in a tussle with emboldened employees who have tasted flexibility, organisations need to soul search and crack their hybrid model code as they craft their return-to-office plans

- Vidya S.

Sometimes, getting into something may be easier than getting out of it. Just ask the HR professionals witnessing up close employees’ return to office under hybrid work as companies roll back pandemic-led work-from-home benefits. If moving tens of thousands of employees into remote work overnight at the pandemic’s outset was a challenge, bringing them back to office under a hybrid model suitable to both employers and employees at a time of record-high attrition levels is proving to be a bigger one.

“Today, the heated job market is not helping the cause of bringing people back to office. The ability of organisations to take hard calls is not there,” says talent solutions provider Careernet’s CEO & Co-founder Anshuman Das, adding that companies are definitely facing resistance from at least a few employees when told to return to office. Agreeing, another senior HR professional who requested anonymity, says: “Employees are saying, ‘You don’t decide my life, I decide it’. Many of them who have moved back to smaller towns are asking if they need this particular job to cover their expenses.”

With vaccination gathering pace, the Omicron wave proving to be mild and India Inc. becoming more confident of managing the virus better, employers’ collective chants have also changed from ‘the future of work is remote’ to ‘the future of work is hybrid’ to ‘one size does not fit all’. Yet to crack a hybrid model that works for them, several companies have been gearing up for more in-office work under a hybrid mode, with specifics varying across industries, management styles and roles.

EMPLOYEES MAY NOT HAVE MUCH CHOICE IF COMPANIES REQUIRE THEM TO RETURN TO OFFICE AS LONG AS THE STATE AND CENTRAL GOVERNMENTS’ RULES DON’T PROHIBIT THEM