25/25 Model for Remote Work ⚡
A couple of weeks back, I wrote about the permanent impact of COVID-19 on remote work and particularly, how companies are thinking of shifting part of their workforce to remote positions permanently. And just a few days ago, I read about this elaborate plan of one of the largest IT outsourcing firms to go remote.
Let me first give you some quick context about the firm. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is the biggest Indian multinational IT services company. It employs 480,000 people in 149 locations across 46 countries.
Given the COVID-19 crisis, just like everyone else, TCS had to ask 90% of its employees to work from home and it only had a short window of 6 hours to execute this move. However, weeks after working remotely, its experience with the move has been quite positive.
Overcoming Misconceptions
TCS employed a version of secure borderless workspace (SBWS) model when going remote (we don't have the exact details, but here's a similar model if you're interested to dig further). It attributes a 25% increase in the company's overall throughout by deploying this model and going remote.
Now even if that number isn't exactly representative or conclusive, it surely helped overcome misconceptions about productivity dips and proved enough for the leaders to take further action. The company's CEO confirmed that they aren't going back to a fully in-office setup. In fact, they went ahead to analyse their existing work setup and came up with an elaborate plan to go remote by 2025.
The 25/25 Model for Remote Work
Let's quickly look at what TCS found about its current working style -
- 25% of any project team can be distributed across geographies. In other words, only 75% of a a project team needs to be in a single location.
- Also, the company estimated that they need only 25% of their workforce to be in office (cumulatively) to achieve an overall 100% productivity.
- Finally, they also realised that it suffices for any employee to be in office only 25% of the time.
(That's right. A lot of 25s there and wait, there's more coming!)
So here's the conclusion TCS reached to - 'Move 75% employees to work from home by 2025'. This is what they call the 25/25 model to go remote.
Impact on the industry and other firms
It is very likely that other IT companies will follow suit and employ a similar plan to go remote. The estimates on cost savings (primarily due to lesser infrastructure costs) and productivity gains are already being talked about.
Gopinathan, TCS's CEO, also said that apart from improving productivity and work-life balance, going remote will also bring in organisational benefits in terms of being better suited for agility and business continuity. Such strong words by a market leader are bound to have an impact on the industry and a desire for action.
We are all ears to any further news or announcements in this regard by other firms!
The Remote Clan - Interesting Discussion Threads
The past week was amazing for our new community! We already have over 200 people who signed up for early access and shared interesting inputs in their profile.
We asked what according to them are the 3 important parts to becoming a successful remote worker and here's what we found:
- Setting a schedule and having clear boundaries between work & personal life seems to be the most popular choice. Rory O'Brien who's worked remotely for 6+ years says "You should partition your brain into work-mode & home-mode and add in fitness activities in the 1-2 hours of commute time you save."
-
Communication turned out to be the second popular choice. Matt Alcock, founder & CEO of Faraday, says, "(The most important part is) communication, not too much, not too little. Getting that ratio right is the secret sauce."
- A lot of members also mentioned the importance of being self-motivated and disciplined since you are pretty much on your own most of the time.
Some other interesting responses we saw:
"Prioritizing socialization, good communication practices, healthy habits." - Irma Mesa, founder, Cafecito.
"Strong sense of independence. Enjoy tinkering. Have enough of a life outside of work that you are not solely defined by your job." - Lesley, working remotely since 2016.
If you haven't joined The Remote Clan yet, I would strongly recommend you do so right away - we have some amazing updates lined up 😉