25 percent of the time in the office – the rest at home

The Indian consulting company TCS (Tata Consultancy Services) has been in the Nordic region since 1991, and today has 20,000 employed consultants in Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark. Customers in the Nordic region include Maersk, Ericsson, Coop Sverige, ABB and Skanska.

Digitization race during the pandemic

For the past two years, TCS has been in the middle of the storm’s eye. When the covid-19 pandemic became a fact in early 2020, many technology companies were forced in a short time to switch to allowing large parts of the staff to work entirely remotely.

Avinash Limaye, CEO of TCS in the Nordics, describes the years as a steel bath. But the pandemic also brought with it an accelerated digitalisation of many industries – which creates great opportunities for an IT consulting company like TCS.

– In three weeks, we had to set up systems so that 90-95 percent of our global workforce could remotely work securely. We are talking about over 550,000 TSC employees who quickly needed access to Microsoft Teams and other services. It was a real challenge – but we made it work, he says.

Halade in large customers – via Teams

An example of how the pandemic has changed the way TCS works is the deal with Skanska. The construction giant became a customer of TCS in March 2021.

At the time, there were several covid restrictions in Sweden, with the result that it took several months from the time TCS began courting Skanska digitally until a first physical meeting could be held. A procedure that would have been completely unthinkable before the pandemic – but also a clear example of new ways of working that will be continued.

The deal with Skanska means, among other things, TCS has taken over responsibility for the construction company’s Oracle Cloud environments, where everything from purchasing to HR and supply chains is handled. It has also helped the construction giant to take the step to the cloud with the help of the TCS framework Machine First Delivery Model, which includes ai, robotics and automation. Everything has been put into operation remotely – without major problems.

– It was only at the beginning of this year, 2022, that I met one of Skanska’s top managers physically for the first time – a year and a half after we started working with them. Despite that, it felt like we had known for several years, without having met, says Avinash Limaye.

Alrite. But what can NOT be done remotely as an IT consultant?

– We quickly noticed that complex projects, with complex timelines, still require physical presence. An example is Coop Sweden, where we are modernizing the entire company’s Sap S / Hana 4 platform (a cloud-based business system, please note). The update affects all 800 Coop stores in Sweden. For that kind of complicated problem solving, you have to sit in the same room so that you can brainstorm intensely and brainstorm ideas. Sure, there are digital whiteboards and other virtual aids, but we’ve found that these are not as effective – at least for this type of large project.

“The situation is unique right now”

Avinash Limaye has worked at TCS for 24 years. During that time, he has experienced several great technicians up close. When he was new to the company, the famous millennium bug, or Y2K problem, was on everyone’s lips.

Since then, the web, social media, e-commerce and smart mobile phones have gone from being niche products to becoming public goods. As a result, we are seeing an increasingly rapid digitalisation of society and industries. A development has accelerated in the last decade – and especially in recent years.

– The situation right now is unique. The order books of many of our industrial customers, for example in manufacturing, are enormous. At the same time, many technology companies are in great need of a modernization of legacy platforms and systems. It touches the very core of our customers’ IT systems – whether it is ERP systems or solutions for managing invoicing via the cloud, he says.

Need to keep growing – fast

To be able to meet the great need for new IT solutions, TCS sees an opportunity to grow – and really. During the company’s most recent financial year, which ended in March 2022, the workforce was increased by 103,000 new employees globally. But it’s not enough.

What skills are you looking for right now?

– Everything we can get! The demand is huge. We are in the middle of a big shift, and are looking for people who are good at ERP (business systems), machine learning, e-commerce, java and full stack – you name it. Our strategy is employees all over the world. TCS has long recruited directly from universities in India, which we now also do from technical colleges in Sweden and the rest of Europe.

The lack of IT skills is great – which means that there is a lot of talk about engineers in certain areas of the labor market. At the same time, TCS, just like other consulting companies, is in the middle of a shift where many employees choose to apply for a new job, retire or leave for other reasons.

How do you work to retain employees?

– Employing outside India used to be a challenge for us, but that is no longer the case. People in other parts of the world have also become more aware of what kind of company we are – I think that the purchase of Jaguar Land Rover, for example, has meant that Tata Group ended up on many radars.

– TCS is a company with a strong social pathos – we run a project in Stockholm where volunteers from the company help to teach school students in science, technology and mathematics. There are always employees who only let the size of the salary decide whether you stay or not, but my experience is that many are rather driven to work for companies as a purpose that feels meaningful, says Avinash Limaye.

The hybrid office here to stay

Social pathos or not – a difficulty that the pandemic and homework brought with it is HR work at a distance. In recent years, many employees have been able to experience what kind of contact with the employer has been on the low side.

At TCS, several initiatives have been launched to strengthen the contact between employers and employees – and between team members at the company who may not meet physically so often anymore.

Constantly current Elon Musk recently made headlines after sending out emails that teleworking at Tesla is no longer acceptable. Come back at least 40 hours / week – or apply for a new job.

Avinash Limaye, and TCS, have a radically different view of the matter.

– We have accepted that the hybrid office is here to stay. N. Ganapathy Subramaniam, Chief Operating Officer of TCS, talks about a 2025 philosophy. It means that our employees will not have to be in the office more than 25 percent by 2025, if you so wish. Our image is that customers have a full understanding of this development, but we will of course be able to offer to have staff on site to a greater extent than in the future, if the customer so wishes.

Diversity is a challenge for TCS

Another tough nut to crack in recruitment is about diversity. Globally, TCS consists of 35 percent women – but in the Nordic region, the company does not reach these figures yet.

– I am aware that diversity is not just about gender – but also ethnicity and other things. We still have a lot to improve in this area, especially in the Nordic region.

A discussion that appears at regular intervals is about diversity versus meritocracy. How do you find a balance there?

– It’s a dilemma. How to balance diversity against merit? There is no easy answer. Of course we want to increase diversity. At the same time, we want to be able to make a fair assessment where merit is still a heavy criterion. It is a process, but we have long-term goals that we work with systematically to achieve, says Avinash Limaye.