Hindustan Unilever does not plan to make the work from home arrangement permanent for its employees. While the Company agrees that the future workplace will be all about flexible schedules, collaboration and open workspaces, it does not intend to gives its employees the option to work remotely forever.
The Company believes that physical interaction, creativity, collaboration and face-to-face discussions play an important role in the growth of the business, and can only be facilitated by working from the office. Therefore, it is not yet ready to let its staff shift to a remote working mode for good.
On the other hand, not long ago, in early November, the Government of India had released new guidelines pertaining to permanent work from home and work from anywhere, for the technology industry.
Other service providers or OSPs that offer services in the telecom industry — BPOs, KPOs, ITES, as well as call centres now have reformed guidelines. They are not required to register any more, and BPOs involved in data-related work need not follow the OSP regulations.
Also, requirements, such as deposit of bank guarantees, static IPs, frequent reporting obligations, publication of network diagram and penal provisions have been eliminated.
All those cumbersome processes that prevented companies from adopting ‘Work from Home’ and ‘Work from Anywhere’ policies have been done away with.
The Government is trying everything possible to encourage growth and innovation in India’s tech space. The reformed guidelines are a step in that direction. By easing guidelines, the Government has tried to do away with unnecessary bureaucratic procedures and rigidity and reducing the burden of compliance.
