Globally, companies such as Slack, Twitter, Spotify and Tata Steel allow employees an option to continue working remotely.
Permanent remote working jobs are fast gaining popularity, especially for select roles in the software services sector, with employees showing improved productivity and other health benefits even as they don’t physically attend offices.
Naukri.com currently has more than 93,000 permanent and temporary remote job listings, out of which 22% jobs are for permanent remote roles only. The job search portal saw more than 3.2 million searches for permanent and temporary remote jobs by Indian job seekers in the last six months. About 57% of these searches were for permanent remote jobs.
Some of the companies posting both temporary and permanent remote jobs include Amazon, Tech Mahindra Ltd, HCL Technologies Ltd, PWC, Trigent, Flipkart, Siemens, Deloitte, Oracle, Zensar Technologies Ltd, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd and Capgemini.
Globally, companies such as Slack, Twitter, Spotify and Tata Steel have allowed employees the option to continue working remotely.
Data from TeamLease showed that profiles like data scientist, software developers, designers, product managers, technical writers, programmers, recruiters, and other individual contributor roles are most likely to work from home on a permanent basis.
Data also suggests that productivity has risen with the work-from-home (WFH) arrangement. A FlexJobs report showed that remote and flexible workers tend to be happier and more loyal due to lower stress levels when working from home.
“Some of the pros for WFH are increased flexibility, reduction in overall infrastructure costs, employee retention, access to a wider talent base, less distractions and overall cost savings for the employees,” said Siva Prasad Nanduri, business head-IT Staffing, TeamLease Digital.
To be sure, remote working has its own disadvantages. “Freshers are at a disadvantage as work is seen more as a transaction than collaboration and can become a hindrance for growth in their career,” Nanduri said.
Nevertheless, as WFH gains in popularity, Tech Mahindra is seeing growing demand for gig workers who possess the necessary niche skills sets.
“We currently leverage an artificial intelligence-based talent marketplace called, Talex, to identify gig workers internally. We have also built an external marketplace called BeGig that enables employers to seamlessly tap into the freelance workforce and hire the appropriate and requisite talent,” said Harshvendra Soin, global chief people officer and head of Marketing, Tech Mahindra.
Zensar Technologies launched a work-from-anywhere initiative in the early stages of the pandemic which led to multiple benefits. “One of the biggest advantages of this initiative is that we have access to a diverse set of talent who may have been out of our reach due to location…This has also helped us recruit those who were on a career break, mostly women employees as well as those who are physically challenged. It has also led to better work life integration for our employees as no time is spent on long commutes, thus having a positive impact on their well-being,” said Vivek Ranjan, chief human resources officer, Zensar.
HR experts believe remote working is here to stay as it provides access to talent without geographical barriers.
“Organizations with a remote work culture will be leading the way to attract top talent, and to give employees more options to define their work-life balance. In talent acquisition and retention, companies now realize that to attract and keep the best talent, WFH must be an option,” said Varun Sachdeva, APAC Recruitment Leader, NLB Services, a workforce solutions provider.
(Source: www.livemint.com)