India's tech industry needs to offer ‘hybrid model’ to retain women employees: Survey

livemint.com:

Covid-19 pandemic changed the work module outlook for almost every industry. Several technological advancement and progressive undertakings could not have prepared companies to change what they viewed as workplace.  The gargantuan change happened for one particular sex- Women! Surveys and reports have suggested that in an integrally patriarchal society, it has been difficult for women to go back to Working from Office, when they have adapted to working from home.  This preference was evident when Tata Consultancy Services in their annual report noted that a larger chunk of their attrition came from women working in the company after they had been asked to work form office.  Mint had earlier reported, that TCS said more women employees have left India’s top software services company than men in the fiscal year ended 31 March 2023 as its return-to-office policy has led to a “reset of domestic arrangements".

While TCS head Chief human resources called the women employee attrition ‘unusual’, a survey has shown that altered domestic arrangement owing to the Covid pandemic induced lockdown has had female employees in the tech sector prefer hybrid model of work to a complete work from office regime.  The survey by IWWAGE shows that older women (33-55 years) are more likely to take up hybrid work. Most of the women who did not choose the hybrid option despite it being offered to them work at a junior level, where 35% of respondents opt for in-person work even after being offered the hybrid option.