Multinational IT companies are increasingly asking their employees to work out of home. In fact, those who take their work to office have to book work-stations.
According to an IBM spokesperson, the company has seen an increase of 50 per cent of its employees working out of home.
Such employees use a shared IBM workspace, and do not have a dedicated desk or office in any IBM facility.
Capgemini too has a similar policy. At least 20 per cent of its workforce has to work out of home and those who visit the office must book their work-stations. Raghu Belur, a senior director with video-conferencing product company Lifesize, a subsidiary of Logitech, said that for most IT companies the cost of maintaining a boardroom or a conference room is 30-50 per cent of the total capex, depending on the technology used.
“The cost of building these facilities is also on the rise,” he said.
Ambarish Deshpande, managing director of Web security provider Blue Coat Systems, said employees are not required to be in any fixed location for their daily activities. They have sales offices in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore. He said nearly 80 per cent of the firm’s managers have their own teams, consisting of remote employees.
The teams, in consultation with their managers, work out a schedule for the day, provided they stick to their required total work hours per day. Cisco president for collaboration and communications Vivek Mansingh said operational costs have come down as the company does not need to factor in the physical presence of all its employees in the office everyday. Cisco, however, did not share the kind of savings on operational costs it is able to achieve.
An official with Citrix said the firm has an open policy where employees can opt to work from home.
“At Citrix, we do not have a published policy on the number of employees who can work out of home. We have an open policy where employees can opt to work from home on days that they wish to, with the consent of their managers,” Shubha Ramnath, Director – IT Services, India Subcontinent, Citrix, said.