Hybrid Work Policy Likely To End At Tech Giant TCS Starting October; To Announce Q2FY24 Results On This Day

India's largest IT company, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is likely to end its hybrid work policy starting October 1, 2023. This would mean that TCS employees will have to work from the company's offices for the usual five days a week compared to the hybrid policy which required them to visit the TCS offices for three days a week. In Q1FY24, TCS had already informed that they are focused on bringing employees back to the office to foster its culture.

CNBC-TV18 cited an official mail of TCS which read, "As communicated by CEO and chief human resources officer (CHRO) in various townhalls, it is mandatory for all associates to attend office on all the working days (5 days per week if there are no holidays) starting 1 October 2023."

However, TCS in a statement to GoodReturns.In said, "As we are in the silent period at the moment, we will not be able to comment on your query."

Under the hybrid work policy, employees can work both remotely and from the office. The companies decide their own approaches to the hybrid work mechanism and hence it could vary.

Nevertheless, after two years of remote working in FY21 and FY22 due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, TCS has initiated a return to office initiative to better integrate and acculturate recruits, deepen employee engagement levels, drive purposeful engagement and extend the spirit of '#ONETCS'.

Also, in the FY23 annual report, the then CEO and MD, Rajesh Gopinathan said, "On the environmental front, we continue to make good progress in our net zero journey. We have brought down our absolute carbon footprint across Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 71% over the base year 2016, meeting our target two years ahead of time. This was despite increased electricity consumption in FY 2023 from employees' return to the office."

TCS' Milind Lakkad, Chief HR Officer also in the FY23 annual report said, "Work from home is definitely more convenient for everybody, but there were drawbacks. Tenured employees who are well networked within the organization can work effectively and even collaborate virtually using the social capital built up over the years. That isn't the case with more junior employees. Workplace essentials like collaboration, mentorship and teambuilding suffered a lot in these two years."

The chief HR of TCS in the annual report revealed, "Then there is the matter of organizational culture. Over half our workforce today was hired after March 2020. New employees get acculturated through physical interactions with senior colleagues and leaders, by observing and following their behaviors and ways of thinking. Without those interactions, employee engagement as well as acculturation got badly impacted. All these factors led us to gradually bring back people to our offices during the year."

In July month, during Q1FY24 results, Lakkad said that the company remains focused on developing, retaining and rewarding the best talent in the industry, and enhancing their effectiveness by bringing them back to the office to foster its culture. That time, he said TCS' employees' return to Office initiative is picking pace, with 55% of the workforce already in office thrice a week.

TCS also gave a 12-15% raise for exceptional performers in its latest annual compensation review, and also commenced the promotions cycle, as per Lakkad.

In other news, TCS intimated stock exchanges about the date for the announcement of September 2023 quarterly (Q2FY24) earnings. Apart from this, TCS is also set to reward shareholders with a second interim dividend for FY24.

In its filing, TCS said, "We hereby inform you that a meeting of the Board of Directors of Tata Consultancy Services Limited is scheduled to be held on Wednesday, October 11, 2023, inter alia to:

- approve and take on record the audited condensed standalone financial results of the Company under Indian Accounting Standards (Ind AS) for the quarter and six-month period ending September 30, 2023;

- approve and take on record the audited condensed consolidated financial results of the Company and its subsidiaries under Ind AS for the quarter and six-month period ending September 30, 2023; and

- consider declaration of second interim dividend to the equity shareholders."

Further, TCS said that the second interim dividend, if declared, shall be paid to the equity shareholders of the Company whose names appear on the Register of Members of the Company or in the records of the Depositories as beneficial owners of the shares as on Thursday, October 19, 2023, which is the Record Date fixed for the purpose.

Earlier, TCS paid its first interim dividend of Rs 8 per share (800%) to shareholders for the current fiscal. TCS is among the top dividend yield companies with a yield of 3.26%. In FY23 alone, TCS paid a huge 11,500% dividend amounting to Rs 115 per share from its profitability to investors.

In the June 2023 quarter (Q1FY24), the company's revenue stood at Rs 59,381 crore, up by 12.6% YoY and in constant currency, the growth stood at over 7%. While net income climbed 16.8% YoY to Rs 11,074 crore. The company's order book stood healthy at $10.2 billion, with book to bill ratio of 1.4.

During the first quarter, TCS made a net addition of a meagre 523 employees, taking its total headcount to 615,318 employees. LTM IT Services attrition rate was at 17.8%.