Wipro gives promotions to ‘a few thousands’

Wipro Technologies has gone ahead and given promotions to selected personnel this year. The company had earlier said that it will not give any promotions and salary hikes in financial year 2010 considering the present market environment.

Employees at the Bangalore-based IT major said that the communication about promotions was made in August to people identified as best performers and those who met the criteria. While it is not known how many have been given the higher positions, employees said it should number in a few thousands.

When contacted by FC, Saurabh Govil, senior vice-president — human resources, Wipro Technologies said, “We continue to reward and recognise best talent. We have a rigorous promotion criteria and employees who meet this criteria get progressed. This happens across all levels in the organization and those promoted get standard promotion-linked increases. We continue to invest in leadership talent and recognise them even if on a selective basis. However, there is no increase being contemplated on a broad-based basis.”

Wipro is the first major Indian company to give promotions in financial year 2010, even if partially. Firms such as Accenture and Cognizant have also been giving selective promotions, even sometimes calling them as bonus incentives, in the last two months.

In FY09, Infosys had introduced promotion for its employees twice a year. The new appraisal cycle is set to start in September at Infosys and it is not known if they will consider the initiative again thisyear.