Survey: Hyd IT Companies Prefer Hybrid Model

As we witnessed a catastrophic second wave and are now concerned with the possible third wave this month-end or so, the majority of Hyderabad’s IT/ITeS employee base prefer working from home in the long run. And, instead of putting efforts to get employees back to office, 70 per cent of the companies feel that hybrid will be the future work model.

A survey conducted by Hyderabad Software Enterprises Association (HYSEA) suggests the apex body of IT/ITeS companies in Hyderabad prefer the hybrid model based on rotation and a hybrid model with partial Work From Home (WFH) and partial Work From Office (WFO). 37 per cent of companies prefer the hybrid model (WFH+WFO) based on rotation while 33 per cent are for hybrid model with partial week WFH and partial week WFO. And 22 per cent reckoned they are unsure of the uncertainties of the pandemic. Six per cent preferred to return to pre-Covid normal while only two per cent want to have only essential employees WFO.

There are going to be a lot of ‘New Normal’ after the pandemic and WFH is going to be tossed around a lot. If there is one thing we can learn from the pandemic that would be — invest in people not in offices. This has not been the first and, unfortunately, it’s more than likely, it’s not going to be the last pandemic we have to deal with. So, what can we do about it? — Remote IT!

It is to be remembered that nearly 91 per cent of the companies have more than 25 per cent of their workforce operating from outside Hyderabad. This is more prevalent among the MLVL(Medium/Large/Very Large) companies with the average being over 40 per cent. Ergo, an overall workforce of 6 lakh plus, it shows nearly 2 lakh being outside Hyderabad. Among the MLVL companies, nearly 60 per cent want more than 20 per cent and in some cases, more than 50 per cent of the employees back to office by the end of 2021.

Nearly 36 per cent of companies have at least 50-75 percent of employees vaccinated. As many as 63 per cent of companies see no challenges in getting employees fully vaccinated while 25 per cent feel vaccine availability is a challenge. Now, talking about Hybrid work, in the long run, some Advantages of them are productivity focus better, saving time on commute, flexible hours, work-life balance, better use of office infrastructure, companies save cost, better hiring the right talent for job requirements.

And some Disadvantages of hybrid model may be lack of personal face to face interaction with others at work and customers, misunderstanding may arise due to lack of communication or due to use of digital communications, when working remotely, cyber security, mix personal life and work – may cause distraction, can be overwhelming. In conclusion, we are by now convinced that we have reached the peak of the remote work era and are now entering the hybrid model era.