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Now, do 'homework' and get paid too!(The Times of India Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)BANGALORE: You don't have to go to your office. Work will land in your lap(top). Imagine working from home and getting paid for it too! Software companies are encouraging this and working from home has become the most popular programming language of techies. While MNCs like Accenture, IBM, Texas Instruments and Intel have been doing this globally and at their Indian arms too, Indian software house Wipro is now taking telecommuting on a war footing. Telecommuting is a flexible scheduling arrangement that permits the employee to work from another location (usually home) other than his/her office. Although you are a full-time employee, you come to office once or twice a week. In some offices like IBM India and Wipro, there are telecommuting zones, where there are work stations only for the telecommuters who come in on certain days. Says Rahul Varma, senior director, HR, Accenture India: "This does not alter the standard number of working hours per week." Wipro has launched a pilot programme for telecommuting. Says Joseph John, general manager: "This is one step ahead of flexi-timing where you report at any time you like. Through this we are trying to create a work-life balance. We don't want our engineers to waste time in traffic jams and also want to cut on real estate costs too." When companies are adding about 2,000-4,000 engineers every quarter, the necessity of seats is also making them realise that telecommuting is one of the best routes to take. They are also recognising that the need to balance work and family is important. Some of them like Texas Instruments India, which has about 1,200 working on high-end chip design, pays a stipend to take care of the broadband and phone costs at home. "We give our employees a toll-free number so that conference calls can be arranged, have a working arrangement with BSNL and Bharti for internet and also with software companies so that employees can get a discount when they are buying PCs and laptops for home use," says V Karthik, HR director, TI India. |