DXC Technology to continue operating virtually, not to call employees back soon: India chief

This comes at a time when the Indian IT sector is gradually asking employees to return to offices amid challenges of high attrition, moonlighting and to inculcate social capital.

“I’m looking at continuing to use the virtual-first philosophy as a way to attract and retain talent. We are not bound to recruit in a particular location. We can give people the flexibility to work from where they feel most comfortable,” said Nachiket Sukhtankar, managing director of the Indian arm of the Virginia, US-based company.

As part of its global plan, DXC Technology transitioned to a virtual-first model more than two years ago, at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, enabling its 130,000-strong workforce to operate remotely.

This model is in sharp contrast to the back to office plans of Indian IT companies.

A few companies are also expanding their presence in tier II and III cities.

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Recently, ET was he first to report that India’s largest software services provider, (), planned to open offices in small cities and non-metro regions including Guwahati, Nagpur and Goa to get employees back into offices.

Bengaluru-based

also said it would open 1,000-seater offices in Coimbatore, Vizag, Kolkata and Noida as almost 60% of the employees had gone back to their hometowns during the pandemic.

“All offices (across 11 locations) officially remain closed. Unless employees have a contractual need to be in the office (from client’s side), I’m not expecting people to come to the office,” Sukhtankar told ET.

Top executives of Indian IT companies have been vocal about driving social capital and a sense of belonging to the organization.

On whether the company would go in for real-estate rationalization due to the move, Sukhantar said it would look to rationalize old facilities that have been inherited through acquisitions and convert others into collaboration and innovation centres to showcase its operations to clients.

DXC Technology also plans to hire 12,000-15,000 people over the next 12 months on a gross hiring basis in India.

The recruitment will be in areas of cloud, security, analytics, business process services and other digital skills and most of the addition will be from engineering campuses.