Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is witnessing a potential increase in resignations among its female employees as the company concludes its work-from-home policy.

According to one of India's largest IT firm, in the fiscal year ending on March 31 (FY23), a higher number of women, compared to men, departed from the company due to the implementation of its return-to-office policy. The company cited a "reset of domestic arrangements" as the reason behind this trend.

TCS Chief Human Resources Officer, Milind Lakkad, described the trend as "unusual" and stressed the significance of working from the office. Lakkad emphasised that being physically present in the office allows employees to comprehend the company's culture better and promotes enhanced collaboration among colleagues.

“There might be other reasons, but intuitively, I would think working from home during the pandemic reset the domestic arrangements for some women, keeping them from returning to office even after everything normalised,” Lakkad said in the company’s annual report released last week.

As of December 2022, a Business Insider report recognised TCS as the leading employer of women among the 500 most valuable companies. At that time, out of TCS' total employee count of 613,974, approximately 210,000 were women, accounting for nearly 35% of the workforce at the Mumbai-based firm.

Lakkad highlighted that until the financial year 2023, the attrition rate among women at TCS had been either lower or comparable to that of men. However, he acknowledged that the increased attrition among women in FY23 was a setback to their endeavours in promoting gender diversity. Nevertheless, Lakkad emphasised their commitment to redouble efforts in this regard.

TCS has disclosed that it experienced an overall attrition rate of 20% during the year without specifying the attrition rate based on gender.

The recent development at TCS coincides with a period of criticism directed towards the Indian IT sector regarding the increasing gender-based pay gap and prevalent sexism. In response, TCS has made it clear that it does not engage in gender-based discrimination.