Cognizant recently allowed its employees in India — in support functions — to work from home as part of a space-management strategy.
Organisations nowadays are increasingly opening up to the idea of working from home or from remote locations, be it to provide more flexibility to employees or for saving facility costs. In line with this, the IT major Cognizant Technology Solutions, recently allowed its employees in India — in support functions — to work from home.
In a bid to manage space within its offices, the New Jersey-headquartered company, which has more than a third of its workforce in India, sent an e-mail to employees, allowing them in corporate functions the flexibility to work from home for two days a week.
Corporate functions at Cognizant include employees in human resources, finance, corporate marketing and related roles. People in support functions or those who are not client-facing come under this category. The move will make space for business associates and employees with client-facing roles.
While the company says that the ‘work-from-home’ programme has been in place for several years now, the option has been broadened for associates working in corporate functions at all locations. The programme is not mandatory and employees are free to elect themselves for the same based on their personal and professional needs.
With a presence in 11 cities and over 1,60,000 employees in India, Cognizant has said that it will reimburse a fixed amount of broadband expenses for those employees who opt for the facility. Apparently, Rs 1,500 a month, will be given as Internet allowance to all employees who take the option.
Those who opt for the programme will be expected to apply for workstations on the Cognizant portal for the days they do come in to work. The system will allocate a workstation in any of the offices within the city. This has become cause for concern among employees who fear a logistic chaos, where each time applying for a workstation will be a task.
Cognizant is one of the largest recruiters in the IT-BPM industry, hiring hundreds of engineers during campus placements. Soaring rentals and space constraints for accommodating large numbers could be the reason behind this move. A senior associate in the company said this was part of their space- management strategy.
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