INDIA INC TAKES SMALL STEPS TOWARDS REOPENING

The top management of Bharti Airtel, in a digital town hall meeting with employees a few days ago, told them that the decision to come to office, once it reopened, was theirs and they could carry on work from home.

A senior company executive said: “We have initiated a staggered opening in green zones. Subject to further guidance from governments, we plan to open the remaining offices in a staggered way from next month. Coming to office will be voluntary and all employees can continue to work from home.”

India Inc, across various sectors, is taking cautious steps to open or ramp up their workplace, even though the government, under the Covid-19 Lockdown 4.0 guidelines, has given states a free hand in formulating rules to permit more employees to join office.

Yet states have issued varied orders. Delhi has permitted everyone to go to office. Maharashtra has gone to the other extreme by keeping offices closed till the end of May.

Leading firms like Coke (there is no move to open office before June), Pepsico, Uber (waiting for directions from global headquarters), Nestlé, Ceat, and Gujarat Ambuja (just opened its Gurugram office with 20 per cent staff ) have either kept their door shut or are permitting minimal use of office premises.

Nestlé India Chairman and Managing Director Suresh Narayanan said: “As the head of the family, my approach is to be extremely cautious and conservative and not to rush into it. The branch offices in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai will be kept shut at least for a few more weeks.”

He said the head office in Gurugram had been opened up with 12 people against a capacity of 600. The Nestlé India boss is happy that work from home is working fine and there is no dip in productivity.

Mumbai-based RPG Enterprises, which controls companies like tyre major Ceat, is ready with standard operating procedures (SOPS) and is hopeful it can open its corporate offices in Mumbai in the first week of June. It has a staggered plan, and will initially open offices with 10-15 per cent of the staff and then slowly ramp it up to 33 per cent.

There are others in Mumbai who are readying their SOPS and hope to get the green signal from the government in the first week of June. Bajaj Consumer Managing Director Sumit Malhotra says 20-25 per cent of its staff would be allowed to come to work at the start.

This will be mostly those who are part of critical functions such as marketing, supply chain, and operations. This protocol will continue for

three months.

Parle Products has told employees who are above 55 and those with children below 10 not to resume working from office once it reopens (likely in June). This will be in place at least for three months. Only 25-30 per cent of the staff will be allowed to come to office when it resumes.

The big boys are also taking baby steps. Sources in the know say in Reliance Jio, 10-15 per cent of the employees, who work in the Delhi-ncr region, are coming to office. Its cus

tomer care employees are working from home.

Co-working company Smartworks, which rents out seats to enterprises in IT services (which constitute for 50 per cent of its business), BFSI, manufacturing, financial services, and even hospitality, is seeing a slow uptake of employees from its clients, many of which are MNCS and use their space as their regional offices in many cases.

Neetish Sarda, founder of Smartworks, said: “In the beginning of lockdown at an average only 5 per cent of our clients’ employees came to our facilities, then it went up to 20-25 per cent in cities like Delhi-ncr, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Chennai, and after Lockdown 4.0 was announced and more relaxations given, it has gone up to 33-35 per cent in Delhi and Bengaluru. By June it should hit 50 per cent with employees coming on every other day.”

Sarda said IT companies expected most of their staff to be on board by June-end, while manufacturing players projected it to be July-end.

The big dampener, he said, is transportation and that is an area his company is trying to bridge for the clients. There are some who are pushing faster. Samsung has about 25 per cent of its employees coming to its headquarters in Gurugram.

IT companies, however, are not in too much hurry. Infosys continues to work with 5 per cent of its employees as of now, and is planning to make its offices operational with 15 per cent employees over two-three months. In IBM India, 99 per cent of employees are working from home and that 1 per cent of the people are focused on critical assignments.