The Pune-headquartered IT services firm is part of the RPG Group, which last month announced that its entire sales department staff would permanently work remotely across its group companies. Other employees would work from home for two weeks a month.

While most IT firms have said that they expect to move to a hybrid model over time, Zensar is among the first to opt for a structure focused more on working remotely.

“Work from anywhere is allowing us to reimagine how we source talent,” said Vivek Ranjan, CHRO, Zensar.

In the last few months, the company has hired over 100 people from small towns like Jabalpur, Guntur and Nashik, and onboarded them remotely.

Going ahead, Ranjan said that this would open up the talent pool further as it would allow them to hire women or people with special needs, who may earlier not have been able to leave home or move to another city for work.

“We were working on a model where people could work remotely, and like a lot of other things, Covid-19 accelerated the adoption of the model,” said Ranjan.

Not all employees would work from home permanently, he said, but the ability to work from anywhere and hiring employees at remote locations would continue.

Most IT firms are shifting to a hybrid model over time.

“Covid-19 has resulted in digitization of offices, leading to flexible and agile workspaces. We believe a hybrid work model – mix of physical and remote working, will evolve post-pandemic…,” said Harshvendra Soin, Global Chief People Officer and Head of Marketing, Tech Mahindra.

At present, employees can choose whether they want to work from home or office and about 5% of workers, who are involved in critical services, are working from office.

“In the long-term, we expect around 25-30% associates continuing to work from home, on an ongoing basis,” he said.

Similarly, Tata Consultancy Services announced earlier that it expected 75% of its employees to be working remotely by 2025.

Zensar is using its digital platforms to ensure that work from anywhere is implemented smoothly, from employee engagement initiatives to learning and development programs and interactions with the senior leaders.