How Zerodha has managed to give WFH option to 90% of its employees? CEO Nithin Kamath shares insight

Zerodha founder and CEO Nithin Kamath in a social media post on X shared his organization's experience with Work From Home and then the transition to a hybrid model. Mr Kamath said the entire team at Zerodha transitioned to full remote work during the pandemic lockdown in 2020. While this arrangement has been beneficial for some, it hasn't been successful for everyone, he said.

Mr Kamath, sharing the insights from Zerodha's Kailash Nadh, elaborated on why remote work didn't suit everyone at Zerodha, highlighting that while it works well for support roles due to the structured nature of the work, it has been detrimental for tech, business, and decision-making teams due to significant gaps in remote communication.

Recently, approximately 10% of the Zerodha's core team, totaling over 100 individuals, began returning to the office three days a week. This change has had overwhelmingly positive effects, significantly improving the work environment, the CTO said.



Nithin Kamath also shared a link of a blog post from its CTO titled "The remoteness of remote work"

Kailash Nadh, the CTO of Zerodha, in the post said that in response to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Zerodha, among many other organizations, swiftly transitioned to a fully remote work setup, accommodating over a thousand employees across various departments. This transition initially proved successful with the first year seeing heightened productivity, fueled partly by the surge in interest in capital markets during the pandemic, he said.

However, as the pandemic persisted into its second and third years, the limitations of remote work became increasingly apparent, Mr Nadh said. The once vibrant collaborative atmosphere gave way to feelings of isolation and the erosion of spontaneous interactions essential for the organization's culture. The toll on mental well-being became significant, and the transactional nature of online communication drained the joy from work interactions, he said.

As a result of these challenges, a collective decision was made to transition to a hybrid work model, with 10% of employees involved in creative and decision-making roles returning to the office three days a week, while the rest continued remote work. This decision aimed to reintroduce the human element essential for effective collaboration and decision-making, acknowledging the importance of proximity in fostering meaningful relationships and spontaneous interactions.

The transition back to office-based work was met with positive outcomes, as the communication gap narrowed, decision-making became more efficient, and the spontaneity essential for innovation returned, Zerodha's CTO said. This shift reaffirmed the value of physical proximity in Zerodha's organizational culture and highlighted the limitations of fully remote work in sustaining the company's growth and collaborative spirit, he added.

Zerodha's CTO had also a word for other organizations: While Zerodha's experience may not directly apply to larger organizations or those with differing work cultures, it underscores the importance of considering the unique needs and dynamics of each workplace when implementing remote or hybrid work models, he said.

Netizens had mixed reactions to Nithin Kamath's post. While WFH allows individuals to save time and fuel on commuting, it often lacks the personal networking opportunities present in an office environment, said an user.

Another said that there are pros and cons to the work-from-home model.

Some individuals thrive while working from home, demonstrating exceptional productivity, said another user.