After spending more than 18 months on the Work from Home model, the Kerala IT industry is making a comeback and employees are gradually returning to their offices.

With the easing of Covid regulations, exemption of restrictions and complete vaccination of employees, IT firms across the State are planning to resume work from office by the beginning of next year.

Hybrid working model

As per the new normal, a majority of the IT companies would prefer a hybrid working model with a mix of employees working from home and office simultaneously. Only a few firms are likely to have a 100 per cent presence of staff, while the others will follow the latter. Added to the efficient inclusions, parks incorporated additional units to their workspace.

“By June next year, 90 per cent of the IT workforce will come back. It’s all related to the business realities like how their business is set up and what their clients demand”, John M Thomas, CEO, Kerala IT Parks.

Overall while few companies on either end of the spectrum will be fully remote or fully in office, the majority will likely operate in a hybrid fashion. The hybrid model is not necessarily going to shrink the workforce. The paradigm shift in the preferences of the companies will be work culture-specific. The WFH has gained more acceptance and it is here to stay. This trend will have a net positive impact on IT industry and society, including workforce expansion to include segments like new mothers, differently-abled etc., reduced traffic congestion in cities and a decentralised IT workforce that not just clustered around major cities, he said.

The IT Parks have maintained their efficiency quotient high even in the Covid days by adding many companies to their catalogue.

Revive local economy

InfoPark has welcomed more than 75 new businesses. Techtaliya, Hexawhale, Invenics software services India, Airpay, Cavalier, Mitsogo and Orthofx are some of the companies which have begun operations in various IT Parks of the State. Along with these fully operational companies, several others including Experion, Zellis HR India and Inspired Software Development have expanded their workspaces in the parks.

Parks have established plentiful amenities to make staff feel at ease after a long time. The Infopark Kochi has launched app-based bike services on campus to have healthy travel around the park's extensive walkways. The functioning of IT parks will be strictly based on the Covid regulations in this new normalcy. The return of the employees would also help revive the local economy in the vicinity of the IT parks with the increase in demand for rented housing facilities and daily wage labourers, he added.

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