Infosys, one of India's leading IT companies, will be implementing a new attendance system that mandates employees to work from the office for at least 10 days each month, The Economic Times reported. This change, effective from March 10, is aimed at increasing office attendance, which witnessed a significant decline post the COVID-19 pandemic. The system will be managed through a mobile application where employees are required to mark their physical presence at designated office locations.
The new system will prioritise project needs over departmental requests, implying that work-from-home requests will no longer be automatically approved. Department heads have already communicated to employees, asking them to limit their work-from-home requests. The initiative is designed to ensure compliance with hybrid work requirements while maintaining some level of flexibility. "To support this, starting March 10, 2025, system interventions will be implemented to limit the number of work-from-home days that can be applied each month. These measures are designed to ensure compliance with the new hybrid work requirements while maintaining flexibility for employees," ET report stated citing an email from department heads.
This move follows Infosys's initial return-to-office programme launched on November 20, 2023, which designated specific weeks per quarter for full team presence. The shift towards more office-based work is driven by factors including economic slowdown, concerns about employee moonlighting, and the need to strengthen workplace culture. Infosys aims to facilitate better collaboration among its approximately 323,000 employees through this system intervention.
Infosys's competitors have adopted different approaches to increase office attendance. TCS, for example, links employee variable compensation to a five-day office attendance policy. Meanwhile, Wipro has a hybrid work model requiring employees to work from the office three days a week, with an additional provision of 30 days of remote work annually.
The "system intervention", as senior executives have termed it, is designed to ensure effective collaboration while affording flexibility to employees. Infosys employees will use the mobile app to record their attendance, which will no longer approve work-from-home requests by default, and will compulsorily require them to punch in 10 days a month.
The move to limit work-from-home options reflects a broader industry shift towards more structured attendance policies. As companies adapt to the post-pandemic landscape, balancing flexibility with collaboration and productivity remains a priority. Infosys's new policy highlights the evolving dynamics between remote and in-office work.