Around 75% Employees Across 8 Indian Cities Willing to Continue Work From Home: ASSOCHAM Survey

According to the survey, 74 per cent of regular staff would like to continue with some form of work-from-home arrangement even after coronavirus is gone.

New Delhi: In an interesting survey report by the industry body Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) that may help companies decide future course of action, a vast majority of employees who have been working from home (WFH) after the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak have admitted that they would prefer to continue to do so.

The survey was conducted by Primus Partners for the business chamber across eight major cities of India, i.e., Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune and Ahmedabad.

According to it, 74 per cent of regular staff would like to continue with some form of work-from-home arrangement even after coronavirus is gone.

One of the biggest reasons behind this is the lack of confidence in public transport. Even though almost all states have restarted services, like public buses and metro trains, people are still skeptical to use them.

The survey said 73 per cent of the respondents said they would rather use their own vehicle, with only 21 per cent looking at continuing to use public transport.

The whole WFH situation has not only benefitted the employees, but the companies as well. The survey pointed out how companies have been advantageous in letting employees work from home, allowing reduction in operational costs, such as transport and office space rental.

“Technology has enabled the WFH (as) a feasible proposition,” a news website quoted ASSOCHAM secretary-general Deepak Sood as saying. “While it is early days to assess how exactly things would pan out, remote working has its own opportunities and even challenges. We need to adjust fast to this paradigm,” he added.

For instance, the survey cites the example of an IT firm, which has just recruited more than 100 employees from tier-2 cities like Indore, Bhopal, Vijayawada, Chandigarh and Patna. The company has decided that all new recruits would follow WFH model, opening up new opportunities for tier-2 cities and reducing the civic load on metro cities, according to the survey.