India Inc wants to go back to office, but employees seem comfortable at home: Study

Moreover, 67 percent large and 70 percent mid-size Indian firms -- as opposed to their global counterparts (60 percent large and 34 percent mid-size) -- are not in favour of a post-pandemic, remote working set-up.

Even digitally agile startups indicated they will revert to an in-office model post the pandemic with 90 percent saying that they would not like to continue remote working once a solution for the pandemic was in place.

Around 46 percent of employees said that reverse migration is temporary and 50 percent of employees said they were willing to return to metro if the job demands it. They attributed a future return to aspects like availability of WFH options (29 percent) and bringing the pandemic under control (24 percent), with only 9 percent saying they will remain in their native places permanently. One in two employees say they are willing to shift back to metro if their job demands it and only 32 percent are willing to take any form of pay cut even if it means finding a job in their native place.

The willingness to take a pay cut to work from their hometowns decreases with hierarchy – 88 percent of senior-level employees say they were unwilling to take a pay cut and 50 percent said they would relocate to metro if the job demands it.

Sashi Kumar, Managing Director of Indeed India said, "Job postings on Indeed are a real-time indicator of labour market activity in India. We’ve noticed an interesting trend where 'remote' and 'WFH' job searches were up 437 percent in March 2021 from the same period last year, a reflection of rapidly evolving work modes. Remote work has served as an equalizer, pushing companies to reimagine and reorganise their work models, encouraging workers to adapt to new concepts of flexibility and productivity. However, in an emerging market like ours where culture outweighs convenience and problem solving is far more effective when people come together, it will be interesting to watch how this plays out as we progress towards our recovery."

Around 60 percent female employees, more than double their male counterparts (29 percent) said they are willing to relocate to their hometowns owing to the lack of a family support system in a current environment marked by quarantined living conditions or employers aiming to reduce the cost of employees by increasing working hours.

However, women (60 percent) are more unwilling than men (42 percent) to take a pay cut to continue working from their hometowns. In a situation that already threatens to widen labour market inequalities – 59 percent women, over 29 percent men, believe it will be difficult to find a job in their native place. Nonetheless, 60 percent female employees said they were willing to return to a metro for work.

Baby boomers – those born from 1946 to 1964 -- (56 percent) are less willing than millennials (38 percent) to relocate to their hometowns. The pandemic has hit Boomers harder than Millennials in terms of job prospects and nearly twice as many Boomers (44 percent) than Millennials (25 percent) say it will be difficult to find a job in their native place. Also, 61 percent Boomers are unwilling to take a pay cut to work from their hometowns.

Millennial workers, thought to be a more agile cohort, seem more inclined to relocating and twice the number of millennials (44 percent) than Boomers (22 percent) say they are unwilling to move back to metro cities even if their job demands it.

Around 30 percent employers might consider setting up operations in small towns to take advantage of the reverse migration trend. Large and medium businesses – both global and Indian – are willing to setup new operations or enhance existing operations in Tier-2/3 cities in significant numbers varying from 50 percent to 88 percent. In addition, 50 percent of employees are optimistic that reverse migration can cause their hometowns to develop into metros either in the near future (21 percent) or in the long term (29 percent).

Employers list internet services (30 percent), app-based businesses (30 percent) and retail, healthcare and entertainment centres (27 percent) as key areas for business development in metros of the future. But the expansion of schools and colleges received a poor show of hands at 14 percent threatening to exaggerate the current talent shortage in these cities that serves as a deterrent for employers. More than half employers (55 percent) said there are talent shortages in upcoming metros.