Hyderabad: IT companies can ask staff to work from office

Madhapur: IT offices, facilities are gearing up to welcome back employees to their workplaces, according to Satyanarayana Mathala, the president of Telangana Facilities Management Council (TFMC).

TFMC is a 400 members strong professional body of facilities management professionals that supervises smooth functioning of 1500 plus IT Offices in and around the tri-cities of Cyberabad, Hyderabad and Secunderabad in which nearly 6.5 lakh IT employees work, informed Satya.

A delegation of TFMC called on Dr G Srinivas Rao, Director of Public Health and Family Welfare, and informed him of their preparedness in welcoming back the IT employees into their offices. "Though we are prepared, employees are not willing to come back to the office. To boost their confidence, TFMC appealed to the official to consider facilities management professionals including 3rd party staff - housekeeping, M&E, the security of IT facilities, who have been taking care of IT facilities - as Covid Warriors and requested the government to give them vaccines on a priority basis. This will give some kind of confidence for the employees to come back to offices," they observed. Dr Rao assured them that he would join them in any initiative of TFMC taken up to win back the confidence of IT employees.

"We are working on a plan so that employees can come back to the office in a phased manner. Currently, just 7% to 12% of staff working in the major IT parks is attending to their offices. We would like to improve this number at least to 25%, said Mathala. "The employees though moving around freely in the city are not willing to join back in offices. We need to gain their confidence," observed a TFMC office-bearer.

Many companies in different industries already called back their staff. Now that schools and colleges are also open, it is time for the IT staff to turn back to their offices, they observed. IT companies are also making a cautious start to resume office for a section of their workforce as the country is back their offices, said another office-bearer of TFMC.

Some companies are also considering a rotation of teams that come into office, while others are letting employees decide if they want to return to office, said Mathala.