Paytm is putting efforts to hire staff from smaller towns, allow them to continue WFH: CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma

Paytm has doubled down on its efforts to hire staff from smaller towns and allow them to continue working from those locations instead of moving to its offices in larger cities amid the pandemic, Founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma said on Wednesday.

Speaking at the ClearTax e-Invoicing Leadership Conclave, Vijay said, initially, the plan was to get the new recruits to join the larger offices whenever the situation would have eased.

"We figured out that we could now recruit from cities where we were previously not going and people don't have to move to the big cities. We are doubling down on that... (People) can now work from wherever they are Chandigarh, Jalandhar, Odisha... Our plan (is) that we will recruit in small cities and not ask them to join (offices) in the big cities," he added.

Vijay said while the company has not zeroed down on a specific model, but about 20-25 percent of its staff could continue to work remotely in the future.

The pandemic and the lockdown that followed had forced companies across sectors to allow employees to work from home. IT and IT-enabled services companies (ITeS) are now looking at bringing in a hybrid model to allow a percentage of staff to continue working remotely without going to offices.

Last month, the government had also announced simplified guidelines for other service providers (OSPs), including BPOs and ITeS companies, to reduce the compliance burden on them and to facilitate 'work from home' and 'work from anywhere' framework.

Industry executives had said these steps will help promote new job opportunities (especially in smaller towns), encourage innovation ecosystem, and support the development of an inclusive and diverse workforce.

Vijay also talked about how India's prowess in software can be leveraged to build software to enhance productivity levels.

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"I am enamoured by the opportunity to serve the common citizen of this country using software technology at a scale when it says the software will eat the world, India's software will eat the world's unproductivity... We, in India, will make ourselves productive and solve our customers' needs, which will be never possible in another part of the world," he said.

Vijay said India will remain its primary market. "In two-three years, we will add the dimension of more international markets. The intention is to build an Indian technology company, which is loved and regarded in the international market," he said.