In the news today, I was reading about how Tata Consultancy Services, India's largest IT service provider implemented the work from home admirably.
The Indian government did not give much warning to its population before implementing, rather efficiently, the 21 days
(then, now extended) lockdown. TCS was forced to implement moving of vital operations from secure locations to employee homes with not much benefit of time. Senior officials have thanked those that lived in their office to make this possible. Any organization should be very happy to have such displays of loyalty and work first attitude! Any special reasons for such happy and dedicated employees?
The COO, N Ganapathy Subramaniam has said that they moved mountains in the six hours after lockdown was announced. I completely believe him, knowing my country! While most of us worried about stocking provisions for home, this does seem a completely different kind of commitment. The complete difference in the model of work from home and the complexities that it brings for sensitive work can be overwhelming to the employees to say the least. So, the onus was also on the company to make the transition as seamless or at least as easy as practically possible.
TCS apparently had done everything from convincing customers (national and international), letting employees take their desktops home, staying of key teams in office for a whole week to set up secure systems to enabling security clearance from all customers, including Government customers.
The company has also expressed hope that government as promised will postpone liabilities if the situation continues. I think this is pretty much the same hope that every business owner, however small or big is banking on at the moment. But in the long run, how is this going to affect the tax payer and every inflation facing customer? Only time will tell. Better sense seems to prevail when it comes to global companies, industries, banking sectors and the like, giving us hope. But then Facebook did a great job of showing many videos today of people opposing the lockdown or the idea of staying safe at home in the US. It makes you question everything including common sense, which as they say is not really common!
The positive seems to be that most industries look at this as nothing more than economic slowdown, not a global financial crisis....yet. It is weird how economic slowdown has taken place because people are now only buying essentials!
Due to their efficient handling of the crisis, TCS are certain at this point that they do not have to layoff staff and can honor job offers made in the last year, although promotions, increments and new hires are on a freeze. But the model is so efficient, that they are considering extending the work from home even after the lockdown. This might well be the future as more companies realize that this is more cost efficient in terms of operations.
How is everyone else doing with work from home? Any other success stories?
