The future of work will be hybrid, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) chairman N Chandrasekaran said on Thursday, while responding to shareholders’ queries at the company’s 26th annual general meeting, held virtually for the second year in a row.
“Work From Home (WFH) is a fast evolving space and there are questions around future of work. While TCS believes that there will be a significant number of people who will be working from home and has declared the 25*25 paradigm, the future of work is going to be somewhat hybrid. Some people will work from home, sometimes they will come to office, so hybrid will likely to be the new normal,” Chandrasekaran said.
He said when the Covid-19 pandemic hit India and the requirement of moving people to WFH model came up in March last year, TCS was able to move swiftly. “Within three weeks, TCS was able to mobilise resources to enable employees to work from home. This is not about providing computers and network to work, but the whole process, the security and methodologies required so that people can work from home and use collaboration tools to be able to be effective and productive to serve customers,” he said.
Last year, TCS had said that in the next five years, only 25% of its employees will need to work out of its facilities at any given point of time. The company had also pivoted to a new operating model that it calls ‘Secure Borderless Workspaces’ (SBWS).
Rajesh Gopinathan, MD & CEO, TCS said, “Our industry leading 25*25 vision actually defines the future of work in our industry, where we envisage that any TCSer would need to spend no more than 25% of their time in office to be fully productive. SBWS TM and 25*25 vision should help us deploy our talent cloud that will reimagine service delivery and overall work experience for all our employees and stake holders.”
Chandrasekaran added, however, that the company believes offices will be needed as collaborative spaces once people start coming to work, and is not looking to give up its real estate spaces. “I would like to make the point that people need to meet people, it is a social necessity, so there will be a shift towards moving people to office when pandemic gets over, so it will evolve,” Chandrasekaran said.
He also said there will be several opportunities post-Covid, with the adoption of technology, emphasis on sustainability and transformation in global supply chains. “Almost a decade’s advancement has happened because the world is shifting towards digital. Also, Covid is going to enforce sustainability in a big way. All companies will be moving towards sustainable solutions faster. Global supply chain is being redefined not only in terms of just-in-time, but also just-in-case i.e. resilience, which is presenting significant opportunities for the company,” Chandrasekaran said.
