IT services giant Wipro has tweaked its work from office policy, putting in more stringent checks for employees. The new rules require employees to stay in the office at least six hours. Wipro is currently following a hybrid work model under which employees are mandated to work from the office at least three days in a week. The Bengaluru-based company, which employs around 234,000 people, rolled out the updated policy with effect from January 1, 2026.Although the requirement to attend office three days a week has been in effect for some time, the stipulation of a six-hour minimum stay, measured between entry and exit punches, is a new element of the company’s hybrid work framework in India.
Wipro’s New Work From Office Rules Effective January 2026
Employees who do not meet the weekly attendance requirement will see their leaves being deducted accordingly. Additionally, those who spend less than six hours in the office on a mandated day will see a half-day leave deduction, according to an ET report.Wipro will continue to allow for temporary remote working, but the allowable number of such days has been reduced to 12 from 15 in a calendar year. These days can be used for personal health needs, illness, or caregiving responsibilities.Communicating the changes through a recent internal email, the company said hybrid work remains central to its future workplace strategy. “We trust all associates will follow the policy in both letter and spirit as it supports collaboration across teams while providing flexibility,” the email reportedly said.The communication also clarified that the six-hour requirement refers only to the minimum duration of office presence and not the total daily working time, which continues to be 9.5 hours. Employees are expected to complete the remaining working hours from home on the same day and ensure delivery of assigned tasks.The changes to work from office rules come as the $283 billion information technology industry faces sluggish topline growth, with the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence beginning to erode its traditional people-led delivery model.According to industry experts, increasingly tight project schedules and the need for closer coordination have pushed technology companies to scale back remote work and emphasize in-person collaboration.“Earlier, applications used to be rolled out every two or three years. Now, the way software is designed and coded is different, with applications being rolled out in as little as eight weeks. So, with upgrades getting faster, people have to collaborate and work much quicker, which makes remote working inefficient,” said Guruprasad Srinivasan, executive director at staffing firm Quess Corp.He added that while routine, process-driven activities such as accounting, data handling and legal services can still be carried out independently, product development and project execution, often referred to as transformational work, require teams to be physically present to improve turnaround time and output quality.
Indian IT Sector’s Work From Office Rules
India’s largest IT services provider, Tata Consultancy Services, introduced a five-day-a-week office attendance policy last year. The framework allows employees to work from home for two days a month in case of health-related issues. It has also tied variable compensation to office attendance, with full payouts applicable for attendance above 85%, reduced payouts for lower levels, and no variable pay for attendance below 60%.Although TCS mandates a nine-hour workday at the office, its monitoring system sends alerts only when an employee’s office presence falls short of four hours. Infosys, the country’s second-largest IT firm with a staff strength exceeding 300,000, announced its return-to-office policy on November 20, 2023. Under the policy, employees at job level 5 and below are required to work from office for at least 10 days each month.
