Coronavirus: Bengaluru firms ask employees to work from home this week

Infosys has decided to extend its work-from-home advisory to all those whose who don’t have to necessarily be in office.

2 min read

. Updated: 16 Mar 2020, 08:11 AM IST

Sharan Poovanna, Nandita Mathur

The order is yet to be issued formally by the government, but the advisory indicates that most IT and other large companies have enclosed offices with air-conditioningInfosys Ltd has decided to extend its work-from-home advisory to all those whose who don’t have to necessarily be in office

Alarge number of companies in Bengaluru have told their employees to work from home as much as possible in the coming week and later, after the Karnataka government on Saturday said it will issue an order directing them to mandatorily extend the option. IT companies have been issued a “strict advisory” by the government to extend the option to limit the spread of Covid-19.

The order is yet to be issued formally by the government, but the advisory indicates that most IT and other large companies have enclosed offices with air-conditioning and large footfall and also points out that five of the seven positive cases identified in Karnataka are related to this sector.
Of the five people who tested positive, three executives work at Dell India, Mindtree Ltd, and Google Inc. and have travel histories to the US and Europe. The wife and daughter of the Dell executive have also tested positive for Covid-19.
Bengaluru-headquartered Infosys Ltd, which evacuated one satellite building after an employee came in contact with a suspected Covid-19 patient, has decided to extend its work-from-home advisory to all those whose who don’t have to necessarily be in office.
“We are advising our employees to work from home wherever possible,” said an Infosys executive, asking not to be named. The company is implementing its advisory in its offices across the world.
“As far as the IT sector is concerned, work-from-home has been on their slate of offering for many years,” said Hema Ravichandar, a strategic human resources consultant. “Most companies have mature systems to handle it,” Ravichandar said.
“However, companies vary in their maturity and its adoption,” Ravichandar said, pointing at some companies that have enabling policies and procedures that allow the company to slip into this option.
Walmart-owned Flipkart has extended its work-from-home option for the entire week starting Monday, a person aware of the development said.
Noida-based HCL Technologies has revised its advisory to maximize work-from-home wherever possible, across all geographies.
“Companies should encourage employees to leverage telepresence and video conferencing to enable seamless engagement. While ensuring that there is minimal disruption to business, we also recognize that the health and safety of employees is of paramount concern,” said Keshav Murugesh, chairman, Nasscom, and group CEO, WNS.
sharan.p@livemint.com

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.

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