Is Infosys losing employee-friendly status?

Source: Infotech.indiatimes.com
For over a decade, Infosys has been seen by many as the epitome of employee friendliness. That reputation has now taken a big knock.

Several measures taken over the past few months -- partly an attempt to correct what the company saw as excesses of previous years -- has had many employees seething with anger.

That's reflected in hundreds of comments made in response to articles about Infosys on the internet in recent weeks, and in conversations TOI had with employees. Even the official internal blog is said to have been used to convey the discontent.

The biggest grouse relates to an HR initiative called iRace - Infosys Role and Career Enhancement - that was rolled out last year. The initiative was designed by consulting firm Mercer with the idea of mapping positions with experience and skill levels.

Previously, positions and promotions were often given arbitrarily, based on an employee's bargaining strength, which often was substantial considering jobs were aplenty. Many were given managerial responsibilities within three to four years, often leading to clients complaining about their lack of technology skills.

While iRace's objective appeared laudable, it suffered in its implementation, the worst of which was to make it applicable with retrospective effect. Many employees were demoted on the ground that they did not meet iRace's experience standards. So, senior project managers went down to project managers, project managers to technical leads, some even went down two levels.

Designations are so important for everybody. And if the management found somebody good enough for a certain position earlier, how can they now say that he is not? What makes it worse is that, all those affected were at lower levels. Nobody in the senior delivery manager and higher positions were affected," said an employee.

Nandita Gurjar, global head for HR in Infosys, said about 5% of Infy's employees would have been impacted by designation corrections and demotions. Infy has a little more than 1 lakh employees, so that would mean about 5,000 being impacted.

She also added that salaries had been protected and that 95% of the company's employees had taken the iRace "career architecture" well. But some employees insist that's not the case.

Infosys reviewing employee rating system

India's second-largest IT company, Infosys Technologies, is reportedly reviewing its employee rating system, iRace --Infosys Role and Career Enhancement.

According to a news report in D&A, the company has set up a working group to review the employee appraisal system. The initiative designed by consulting firm Mercer with the idea of mapping positions with experience and skill levels is said to have met with widespread resentment.

Previously, positions and promotions were often given arbitrarily, based on an employee's bargaining strength, which often was substantial considering jobs were aplenty. Many were given managerial responsibilities within three to four years, often leading to clients complaining about their lack of technology skills.

While iRace's objective appeared laudable, it suffered in its implementation, the worst of which was to make it applicable with retrospective effect. Many employees were demoted on the ground that they did not meet iRace's experience standards. So, senior project managers went down to project managers, project managers to technical leads, some even went down two levels.

Designations are so important for everybody. And if the management found somebody good enough for a certain position earlier, how can they now say that he is not? What makes it worse is that, all those affected were at lower levels. Nobody in the senior delivery manager and higher positions were affected," said an employee.

In fact, according to a recent report from brokerage firm CLSA, over 4,000 employees may have resigned from Infosys in February.

Though the large attrition figure is said to be due to the improvement in the economy, some industry observers and Infosys employees also said that another reason for the high attrition could be due to iRACE.

Incidentally, so far Nandita Gurjar, senior vice president and global HR head of Infosys, has strongly maintained that iRACE is not the driver behind exits and that the complaints are coming from a “minority”. Also, that promotions cannot happen at the same pace as the pre-crisis times, unless growth returns to the heady levels.

Convergys to hire over 1,000

Global human resource and billing service provider Convergys Corporation today said it will hire more than 1,000 employees in the country over the next three months.

The company would hire over 1,000 people for its Gurgaon office in the country, the New York Stock Exchange-listed firm said in a statement.

"Convergys provides an outstanding quality of service to our clients, which is why they continue to entrust us with more business. We will hire the top quartile of candidates to ensure that we deliver superior service levels consistently," Convergys' Customer Management (India Ops) Director of Recruitment Ashutosh Sinha said.

The new jobs are for supporting its increased business from telecommunications and financial services clients and the employees taken on board would provide a wide range of voice-based support to the clients' customers, it said.

Convergys has about 70,000 employees in 82 customer contact centres and other facilities in the US, Canada, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

In addition to comprehensive training, Convergys offers employees a positive work environment, competitive wages and benefits including tuition reimbursement, the statement added.

Cisco to hire 500 at Bangalore unit

After setting up its Globalisation East centre a couple of years ago, networking major Cisco now plans to make Bangalore one of its three hubs for technical services business. The business unit, presently being reorganised at a global level, will grow its Bangalore strength by 500 engineers in next 24-30 months.

Joe Pinto, senior vice-president - technical services, Cisco Systems told FC that the rapidly growing division is being transitioned to have three concentrated centres including in Bangalore and Raleigh (North Carolina, US) and other smaller units. “Bangalore will be a key centre with several senior engineers. Apart from doing some support for US clients, the team will take care of emerging markets and rest of Asia,” he said.

Presently, the technical services team has 3,500 people globally. In the short term, the unit is expected to add 500 people.

In its Globalisation East centre, Cisco has mirrored all corporate and operational functions at the US HQ. It also is looking to develop solutions and products especially aimed at emerging markets. Pinto sees the Bangalore team gaining from the available talent pool in India and easier access to solutions being developed at the Globalisation centre.

Siemens to axe 4,200 jobs from IT business

Diversified German conglomerate Siemens AG has said it will reduce headcount by 4,200 people from its IT business worldwide by 2011 as part of reorientation.

In a statement, the company said it would eliminate 4,200 jobs at Siemens IT Solutions and Services (SIS) worldwide by the autumn of 2011. The company currently employs about 35,000 people in its IT business globally.

Siemens Group has a good presence in India, where it provides direct employment to over 17,000 people.

Of the total number of 4,200, around 2,000 jobs would be axed in Germany, the company said without providing details for the rest of the job cuts.

"As part of the reorientation, plans call for eliminating some 4,200 of about 35,000 jobs worldwide by 2011. Roughly 2,000 of the jobs affected are in Germany," Siemens said.

Besides, Siemens is also planning to hive off its IT unit into a separate business entity.

While making job cuts, Siemens said it would "exhaust all possibilities for voluntary measures and to implement the cutbacks in as socially compatible a way as possible.

"Measures will include, for example, the termination of employment contracts by mutual consent or the non-renewal of temporary contracts. The required consultations with employee representatives will be initiated immediately," it added.

Moreover, Siemens said it would invest over 500 million euros into the SIS by 2012.

Siemens Group currently employs more than 4,00,000 people across the globe in its wide range of operations spanning from energy sector to healthcare and financial sector.

Cisco India's hiring plan on track, says John Chambers

Network-equipment maker Cisco Systems on Friday said it remains committed to the Indian market and its plans to increase headcount to 10,000 is on track.

“With all the appropriate caveats, the global econnomy is turning. We are deeply committed (to India). We are completing construction on two additional areas, which can house as many as 3,000 more,” Cisco CEO John Chambers said at a private function here.

The headcount India is projected to rise to 10,000 from about 6,000 currently, he added. However, Chambers did not divulge the timeframe.