Processing .....please wait.. 
The article has been forwarded.... 
News >> Technology >>
IT cos adopts work-from-hometown concept
By agencies
|
Friday, 05 May 2006, 19:30 IST
BANGALORE: If you thought work-from-home was ‘cool,’ then you haven't heard of the hot new concept in tech town. Though work-from-hometown is a new concept in India, however Silicon Valley has experimented and accepted as a best practice, and the good news is that the trend is catching up in India.
Considering a logical extension of telecommuting, this new HR practice allows tech companies to hire and retain the best talent across the country.
Global majors such as Unisys has already implemented it and Sun Microsystems is evaluating the practice at its development center in Bangalore. And the penetration of high-speed broadband connectivity is strengthening the adoption of the concept.
Unisys India’s Country Manager, Mukul Agrawal said, “We have authorized people to work from different cities and it has already started." Sun Microsystems, too, has allowed `a few critical' people to work from their hometown under the iWork program.
"We actively encourage work-from-home and in some cases work-from-hometown,” said Hemant Sharma, Head of HR, Sun's India Engineering Center.
Though this is more feasible for people who work in isolation like in the R&D or sales area, there are some team members who have adopted this work method. Currently, Unisys has 600 people in its IDC, Agarwal said, “Now, we have full time employees working from Bombay, Delhi, Hyderabad and Chennai and they occasionally travel to Bangalore for business meetings.”
At this moment, less than five percent of Unisys employees work from home in India. "We intend to focus on this and expect to increase it to 15 or even 20 percent of our workforce," Agrawal added.