It seems that companies in the tech industry are struggling to invite people back to the office as many employees are struggling to comply with the new policy. TCS is one of the companies which is asking its employees to come back to office and work. However, many people have taken issue with this as Milind Lakkad, HR head of TCS, revealed in the company’s annual report that many women employees have resigned due to similar reasons.
Lakkar stressed that the company asked people to return to the office, and there have been more resignations from women employees because they wanted to work from home. He also clarified that this could be a reason and has nothing to do with discrimination. TCS reportedly lost over 20 per cent of its workforce in the last financial year. This percentage can include both genders. The IT firm did not mention the exact number of women employees who would leave the company due to the policy.
“Historically, women’s attrition at TCS has been more or less the same as men’s attrition, so this is unusual. There could be other reasons as well but intuitively, I feel working from home is an option for some women during the pandemic. resets the domestic system, preventing them from returning to office even after everything is back to normal,” he said.
He also pointed out that TCS’ objective of promoting gender diversity will not diminish and it will continue to hire more of both genders. The company says its workforce now comprises over 6,00,000 people, of whom 35 per cent are women employees. Furthermore, the report claimed that three-fourths of women in TCS hold top positions in the company.
“High attrition among women in FY 2023 is a setback for our efforts to promote gender diversity, but we are doubling down on it. Focused leadership development programs like iExcel are making a tremendous difference. Of all leadership positions filled from internal candidates in FY 2023, women made up 23% of selected candidates, even though they made up only 14% of the applicant pool. Similarly, in our external hiring, women make up 38.1% of our total workforce compared to 35.7% this year.”
The company’s annual report states, “The workforce has grown to over 614,000 with 35.7% female associates.”
TCS has also confirmed that around 20 per cent TCS employees have returned to office and the company’s Chief Executive Officer Rajesh Gopinathan said that the firm will continue to follow its 25×25 model in future as well. This model basically means that only 25 percent of its global workforce is expected to come to the office for work, while people spend 25 percent of their time in the office.
“As the world is slowly getting back to normal after the Covid-19 pandemic, TCS also looks forward to the resumption of physical engagements. Around 20% of TCS employees or around 100,000 TCSers are back in offices. This is much higher than the 5% workforce required at the peak of the pandemic. In-person meetings have resumed, as client footfalls resume at TCS campuses across the globe. The company is committed to the 25×25 model and will introduce it in a phased manner. However, for this the employees will have to come back to the office first.
