Tatas, Wipro propose work-from-home

MUMBAI/BENGALURU: The Tata Group and Wipro have recommended — in some cases mandated — work-from-home for their employees in response to the Covid-19 outbreak. Tata Motors has mandated work-from-home for non-customer facing roles from Monday.
Across several Tata Group companies, employees in consumer-facing roles like sales, marketing and customer relationship management have been given guidance on flexible work arrangements.Pregnant women and employees with chronic respiratory and cardiac illness have been advised to work from home.
Tata Realty and Infrastructure will split its employees into two groups, of which one will work on the first three days of the week and the other will come in for the rest of the three days for uninterrupted operations. The conglomerate employs a big salesforce in the country.
The Taj chain has asked its corporate office staff to work from home for a week from Monday. However, the vast majority of its workforce have jobs that require them to be present in its 100-plus hotels.
The Group’s largest employer TCS hasn’t issued a guidance, and has left the decision to functional and business heads. However, its IT counterpart Wipro has advised all employees to work from home “wherever feasible and if their role allows them to do so”.
All support and non-billable employees (including those who’re not engaged in any project) will work from home after consulting their managers. Wipro said video-conferencing should be used to hire prospective candidates.
“Face-to face meetings with potential candidates must not be scheduled until further notice,” it said. It has prohibited group meetings of over 10 people and has put all travel on hold, except for those scheduled to return to their base location due to regulatory requirements (visa).