Many young employees in the IT sector were recruited from tier II cities. Almost 60% of them have gone back to their hometowns and this has opened up an opportunity to attract talent from across the country, he said.
“A large number of our people are working from hometowns. We have looked at it and (want to) ensure that they have opportunities to work closer home. These are not satellite offices. It is at least 1,000 seaters and we will expand them as we go forward. In the next quarter-end, all these offices will be ready,” Shankar said.
The company already had smaller centres in Indore and Nagpur but is now setting up offices in Coimbatore, Vizag, Kolkata and Noida.
“The idea is that these are all hubs of talent in the future. So, I think we will continue to invest in them and grow them as we go forward,” he said.
The trend of companies going to tier II cities is being witnessed across the board, especially with improved infrastructure in these cities, said Sangeeta Gupta, senior vice president and chief strategy officer of IT industry association Nasscom.
Discover the stories of your interest
“This is what we’re hearing across companies,” she said. “But they may not necessarily be very large campuses that are set up in these places. They will be micro-hubs that come up in these places. It’s a common trend because talent strategies are determining where companies set up their next office.”
The number of women in the company’s workforce has increased by one percentage point. It was 38.6 % last year and is now 39.6% on a base of 315,000 employees, Shankar said. “It’s a huge number,” he said.
“Some people like the flexibility that they can work and manage and be at home. Others found that they not only had to do work from home, but also manage children and caregiving responsibilities. For those people I think it has been a stretch,” he added.
There is a greater focus on diversity and sensitivity to the issues and challenges that women have faced through Covid-19, he said.
“Every industry, company that we are talking to now has a very active programme to get women back – women who have exited the workforce, how can we get them to re-join, and we are offering them a lot more flexibility,” Gupta said. “I think in the future it is going to be a good combination of flexibility, return to office, some people totally remote in specific jobs… I would say it’s a positive movement for the women workforce.”
