The second-largest IT hub in India, Hyderabad, has around 90% of its workforce that continues to work from home despite lockdown relaxations. The IT industry was given permission to begin its operations provided they only allow 33% of their workforce to be in the office ensuring the social distancing protocols.
Hyderabad’s Hitec City has a sprawling space accommodated by all major IT giants and other software companies. However, these parks continue to remain isolated as more than 90% of the staff is keen on working remotely as per officials from the Information Technology department.
There was a small number of employees, around 5% of the total workforce, that were attending office for essential services such as payroll, healthcare, payments, data centre maintenance and other supporting tasks. Since the relaxation, it has atleast jumped to 10% of staff showing up.
As announced by Telangana’s chief minister, K. Chandrasekhar Rao, the lockdown will be lifted in the state on May 27 which means all activities will resume normally. There is a good possibility of seeing more employees showing up to work after the lockdown has been lifted.
President of HYSEA Bharani Kumar Aroll told IANS that getting people back to work is as difficult as making them work from home. He said that 95% of the staff working from home has moved the hardware from office to home set up and moving this back will be a herculean task. Employees are apprehensive to return due to what they have been reading and watching about the pandemic.
Social distancing will continue to remain a protocol for businesses to follow until there is a cure for the virus. A lot of businesses will have to face employee resistance in getting back to work and adjusting to what was normal before the outbreak. Lockdown relaxations by States may not be as effective in getting work started.
