Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), counted amongst India’s largest IT firms, is seeing mass resignation from female employees. Three years after the inception of Covid-19, when the restrictions have reduced to the namesake, TCS called all its employees back to the office. It ended the work-from-home policy. It has left female employees in the dilemma of choosing the office over the home as a workplace. Many chose the latter, pushing women to opt out of work at TCS.
TCS is known to keep gender diversity in the workforce and provide women with numerous employment opportunities. The company claims the decision to call back employees to the office is the main attributing factor behind women handing in their notice.
As per Milind Lakkad, head of human resources, the number of resignations from female employees rose after the company scrapped its policy of allowing employees to work from home. Lakkad stated this is the primary cause among many factors that can influence their decision. He emphasized that female employees did not move their resignation because of discrimination.
“Historically, women’s attrition at TCS has been similar or lower than men’s attrition, so this is unusual. There might be other reasons, but intuitively, I would think working from home during the pandemic reset the domestic arrangements for some women, keeping them from returning to office even after everything normalized,” he said.
Over 6,00,000 employees work at TCS, of which 35.7% are women. The company retained 38.1% of its female employees in FY 2023. They hold three-fourths of the top positions. With the recent wave of resignations, TCS is on the cusp of losing 20% of its workforce in the previous fiscal year.
TCS has affirmed that 20 percent of TCS employees have returned to the office. The IT firm’s Chief Executive Officer, Rajesh Gopinathan, said that the firm would continue to apply its 25×25 model ahead, as well.
The 25×25 model says 25 percent of the global workforce will come to the office for work, spending only 25 percent of their time there.
“As the world gradually returns to normal after the Covid-19 pandemic, TCS, too, resumes physical engagements. Almost 20% of TCS employees or close to 100,000 TCSers are back in offices. This is significantly higher than the 5% essential staff at the peak of the pandemic. In-person meetings have resumed, as have client visits to TCS campuses worldwide. The company remains committed to the 25×25 model and will roll it out in a phase-wise manner. However, that would require employees to first come back to the office.”