Old economy companies warm up to hybrid work culture for employees

Companies such as Ceat, Tata Steel, ITC, Mahindra Finance, Thermax and Forbes Marshall are allowing flexible work options including hybrid working involving two-three day work from office and rest remote, permanent remote working, work-from-home (WFH) with fixed base location or work-from-anywhere (WFA) which does not require a fixed base location. The functions that are increasingly opening up for hybrid work include finance, human resources, legal, accounts and various tech roles.

This gains significance especially when many established large companies are seeing an outflow of talent to some of the sunrise opportunities and new age startups that are wooing talent with their flexible work culture.

“Flexibility is the name of the game… it is the most important talent attraction and retention strategy,” said Milind Apte, senior vice-president, human resources, Ceat Tyres. “We have one category that has to always come to the office because of their nature of work. Apart from that we have hybrid options including permanent WFA, up to 50% WFH and up to 20% WFH.”

Amitav Mukherji, head of corporate human resources at ITC, said, “Since the pandemic started we have been operating with a hybrid model where the role permits. In the long term, we intend to stay with the hybrid mode, with managers having the flexibility to work remotely on some days of the week.”

Tata Steel offers two work models under its agile working policy – absolute work from home, under which the employee can work from any location in India, and flexi work from home, under which even the employees who are required to be based out of a particular location can work from home for unlimited days in a year.

“The policy, launched initially as a pilot for one year in November 2020, has received positive and encouraging feedback from employees and business heads. Tata Steel has, therefore, decided to continue with this policy even after the pandemic,” said a company spokesperson.

Madhu Srivastava, group chief HR officer at diversified miner Vedanta, said, “We are in essential commodities so our factories and offices continue to work (five days a week), but we will give flexibility wherever the role permits.”

Mahindra Finance has started a “hybrid-return to site” protocol at its corporate offices. “Employees are required to work from office on an alternate day rostering basis, while they work from home during other working days,” said Atul Joshi, chief, HR, Mahindra Finance.