US says Infosys blatantly flouted immigration laws

Federal prosecutors have alleged that IT major Infosys indulged in blatant violation of immigration laws by not only bringing its employee inside the country on a visa which does not permit work, but also issuing specific directions to its workers to mislead the immigration officials on their point of entry on their nature of work.

"To circumvent the requirements, limitations, and governmental oversight of the H-1B visa programme, Infosys committed visa fraud by knowingly and unlawfully using B-1 visa holders to perform skilled labour in order to fill positions in the United States for employment that would otherwise be performed by United States citizens or require legitimate H-1B visa holders, the US Attorney, John M Bales said.

Read more at TimesofIndia

Infosys inducts 12 executives into management team

In perhaps the biggest ever expansion of its leadership team, Infosys has inducted 12 new faces to the executive council (EC). This takes the total strength of its highest decision-making body to 30. With this, the EC's strength has almost doubled since the end of 2012-13, when it had 16 members. In comparison, rival Wipro has 23 members in its management team. As EC members, the new Infosys inductees will be entitled to an allowance of $150,000 each per annum pro rata for the period as member. "We have strengthened our executive council to help us drive focus on key growth areas," the company said.
Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/careers/job-trends/Infosys-inducts-12-executives-into-management-team/articleshow/24678879.cms

Infy, iGate others in queue for Rs. 1,00,000-cr govt IT contracts

While visa restrictions and business slowdown pose challenges in their traditional strongholds, such US and Europe, upcoming mega government projects seem to offer a degree of comfort for the Indian IT companies.

Indian IT service companies TCS, Infosys, HCL, Wipro, Tech Mahindra and iGate and multinational companies such as IBM, Accenture, HP and Dell are vying for a sizable pie of various e-governance projects, the total cost of which would run into anywhere between Rs. 80,000 crore and Rs. 1,00,000 crore.

“For Indian IT industry, the government continues to be the major source of business,” said CN Raghupathi, vice-president, India business, Infosys. “With various e-governance initiatives at its nascent stage, the opportunity is enormous.”

“The rollout of Aadhar itself provides a lot of opportunities,” said Apporva Ruparel, head, India business, iGate. “There are 17 categories of direct cash subsidy… to be rolled out in 643 districts. In value terms this would throw up a huge number.”

Apart from Aadhar, various Central and state e-governance projects, such as digitisation of land records, implementation of smart-grids in electricity distribution companies and the computerisation of state treasuries will result in sizable contracts.

Tamil Nadu has finished bidding process for computerisation of its state tax department. Other states including Maharashtra are soon expected to come up with bids. For the smart-grid implementation, eight bids are underway.

All this does not necessarily mean a smooth flow of business for IT companies. "There is a fair degree of unpredictability as these are government projects," said a senior executive, who wished to be not identified.

The government is expected to play a major role in the future of the Indian IT market.

India’s IT market is expected to grow from $10.3 billion (Rs 61,800 crore) in 2012-13 to $13.4 billion (Rs 80,400 crore) this year, and to touch $20 billion (Rs 120,000 crore) by 2020.

Source: http://www.hindustantimes.com/business-news/SectorsBPOs/Infy-iGate-others-in-queue-for-Rs-1-00-000-cr-govt-IT-contracts/Article1-1092418.aspx

Infosys eyes IT, BPO arms of European companies

Infosys is looking to acquire technology and back-office services arms of European companies as they open up to the idea of outsourcing such work with an eye on cutting costs. The deals that Infosys is chasing could give it committed business worth $40- $250 million (Rs 240 crore-Rs 1,500 crore) over three to five years, the Europe head of India's second-largest software firm said. Such transactions typically involve upfront payment for buying the facilities of corporations as well as taking over their employees.

"There are quite a few opportunities we are participating in. For clients, it is about cost-optimisation but at the same time they don't want employees to be impacted," said InfosysBSE -0.01 % board member BG Srinivas, who also heads the financial services business division. "We are open to rebadging employees because we are continuing to invest in Europe."

Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/ites/euro-trail-infosys-eyes-it-bpo-arms-of-european-companies/articleshow/21076918.cms

NAB culling IT jobs: Australia

NATIONAL Australia Bank has been urged to be more transparent with redundancy figures amongst technology workers with unions confirming more than 90 jobs have been affected.

The Australian yesterday reported that NAB staff sources and management were at odds with the number of technology roles impacted by a move to outsource IT testing to Infosys.

NAB said 26 people have been made redundant but some affected staff say it's about 95 workers.

The cuts have affected all parts of the group, including its wealth management arm MLC.

Finance Sector Union national assistant secretary Geoff Derrick said: "we have heard from our members that their work is being outsourced (to Infosys) and probably offshored".

Mr Derrick said more than 90 people are affected but "not all in one go", a view shared by affected employees who spoke to The Australian.

NAB workers have been conducting "knowledge transfer" sessions with Infosys and they would be let go once that was completed, he said.

Mr Derrick said the union was having difficulty getting a straight answer from NAB on whether local jobs would be sent overseas.

Telstra to outsource 170 jobs to Infosys

Telstra will outsource the roles of 170 full-time staff and 90 contractors from one of its fastest-growing business units to India, with Indian supplier ­Infosys understood to be picking up the work.

The redundancies from Telstra’s network applications and services division announced on Tuesday are the latest in a series of staff cuts at the telecommunications giant. In May, it indicated plans to overhaul its 15,000-strong internal operations divisions.

The NAS division, which generated $636 million in revenues in the half-year ending December 31, 2012, sells services such as cloud computing and video conferencing. It is Telstra’s fastest-growing segment with plans to increase the business in Asia.

Source: BRW

Why Infosys is losing momentum in every vertical

Infosys's overall revenues dropped below that of Cognizant last year. But what must be worrying the IT company more is its loss of momentum in almost every vertical. And in both its flagship verticals - BFSI (banking , financial services & insurance ) and manufacturing - its rank has dropped.

In BFSI, Infosys's revenue in the March quarter of fiscal 2011 was $571.9 million and this grew modestly to $657 million in March 2013. But Cognizant's revenue grew from $570 million to $855 million in the same period , pushing Infosys to No. 3 in that space. In fact, Cognizant surpassed Infosys in this vertical in the June quarter of fiscal 2012.

Read more at http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/tech-news/software-services/Why-Infosys-is-losing-momentum-in-every-vertical/articleshow/20938410.cms

Narayana Murthy effect: Infosys plans high salary for top performers

Infosys is drawing up plans to tilt the scales in favour of top performers, part of efforts to revitalise the workforce after NR Narayana Murthy returned as its chairman on June 1.

According to company executives briefed about Murthy's thinking, the emphasis on employee performance as a vital differentiator is linked to a broader effort to revive a culture of meritocracy in the company that has underperformed the industry for two years. "The differential between high-performers and non-performers will increase. Variable pay will be one mechanism through which this will be achieved," said a person aware of Murthy's plans.

Murthy, 66, returned as executive chairman of Infosys following a request from the company's board, which was under pressure from investors and analysts fretting about the company's troubles. Infosys grew at half the pace of the broader industry in 2012-13 and has admitted that it will lag rivals this year too.

At present, employees with the top ratings receive 50-90% of their variable salary while the lowest-rated ones get only up to 30%. Typically, 10-25% of an executive's compensation can be variable, depending on seniority.

Besides individual performance, the relative performance of the business unit also becomes a key deciding factor.

Rupee fall to cushion wage hike impact

Infosys announced an average increase of 8% for employees in India, while those in other geographies will get an average 3% hike.

Two of the largest Indian information technology (IT) services companies, Infosys and Wipro, have announced annual wage increases this year, the quantum of which are more in line with the industry average. While Infosys said it would give an average rise of eight per cent to its employees in India, Wipro has announced an increment of six-eight per cent.

Infosys usually gives rises to its employees with effect from April every year. In FY13, the company deferred the decision citing tough global economic environment. However, it later revisited the decision and announced a wage hike in October. This year (FY14), though the company management had indicated to restructure the employee compensation with an aim of increasing the fixed component in the salary, it was non-committal on giving a rise.

Apart from India, employees located in other geographies, who were not given wage hike in February this year, will be covered in this cycle, Infosys said in a statement today. They would be given an increase of about three per cent in average. The increments will be effective July 1. However, for its global sales force, the changes will come into effect from May 1.
Source: Business-Standard

Infosys announces wage hike, Wipro follows suit

NR Narayana Murthy has made his first significant move upon returning to Infosys by effecting an unexpected round of wage increases for the company's 1.5 lakh employees. By doing so, analysts said, the Infosys chairman is trying to kill several birds with one stone, displaying tactical finesse that has earned him a reputation as one of India's canniest entrepreneurs.

On Thursday, less than a fortnight after Murthy came back to helm the company, Infosys announced an average increment of 8% for India employees, effective from July 1. For employees outside India, the company said the increments will be 3%, albeit with some riders. The biggest push was reserved for its global sales force which will get a raise of 8% effective May.

Wipro, which announced increments in July last year, also sent a note about an hour after the news from Infosys. It said it is giving an average increment of 6-8% for offshore employees and 2-3% for onsite employees, effective from June 2013. For high-performers, the raise will be in double digits. A Wipro spokeswoman said the emailed note was in response to media queries.

"There have been serious issues with employee motivation levels at Infosys. Wipro rolling out wage hikes on the same day shows that it wants to ensure the company doesn't lose employees to Infosys," said Pradeep Mukerji, president and managing partner at outsourcing advisory firm Avasant. Infosys's populist move — a certain vote-winner among staff — could raise morale, enhance Murthy's stock of goodwill and send out a message to all stakeholders and rivals that the Infosys co-founder is back and means business. "By announcing wage hikes, Infosys wants to calm down anxiety among its employees and stabilize things within the organization. It is a smart move; however, we do not expect more bold moves from Murthy," said Manish Bahl, country manager at Forrester Research. "He will be focused on getting things aligned, talking to clients and creating expertise on the product innovation side." Read more

Infosys, TCS, Sify bag Postal Department's technology projects

The Department of Post (DoP) has issued Letters of Intent (LoIs) to Infosys, TCS, Sify and Reliance Communications Infrastructure for different technology advancement projects.

"Department is trying to induct technology in a big way. There are eight RFPs (Request for Proposal) we have floated and issued Letter of Intent in five (projects) to companies which include Infosys, TCS, Sify and Reliance," Secretary (Posts) Manjula Parasher told reporters here.

The Department has got approval of Rs 1,877.2 crore to be spend across these projects over period of two years and will seek additional funds when the need arises.

IT cos like Infosys, HCL Tech, Cognizant, Wipro pamper placement officers for best talent

Once reserved for market analysts and key clients, Indian information technology companies are now pampering college placement officers by taking them on domestic and foreign trips as they seek to hire the best talent from Indian campuses ahead of competition.

Over the years Cognizant has been taking placement officers to cities like Bangkok and Dubai while others have been holding their offsites within their campuses. Infosys has also joined the race this year, although with a modest start in domestic locations.

Indian IT firms depend on campus recruits for a bulk of their hiring every year, making job offers to thousands of students every year. In this financial year for instance, Infosys is hiring over 20,000 students from campus while TCS is hiring over 30,000.

Such events, some analysts say are part of efforts to get the best interview slots when hiring from colleges. Infosys, which insiders say lost out in the talent scramble because it failed to get the socalled "slot zero" has now started Samvaad 2012, where the Bangalore-based firm hosts placement officers in Mysore, Pune, Hyderabad, Bhubaneswar, and Chandigarh.

Some 310 placement heads from a similar number of engineering institutions across the country are being invited, according to a company spokesperson. Through the event, Infosys seeks to impart skills, including "negotiation skills" to help these placement officers in their current roles.

Infosys to set up another centre in Tamil Nadu

Infosys Technologies, the country’s second-largest information technology (IT) services exporter, has approached the Tamil Nadu government for 200 acres of land near Chennai for setting up a development centre, according to a senior state government official. The Bangalore-based company confirmed talks with the state government representatives, but refused to comment further.

The official said Kris Gopalakrishnan, chief executive officer and managing director of Infosys Technologies, met Deputy Chief Minister M K Stalin on Monday discussed on the company’s future expansion in the state.

Experts' take on how India Inc handled layoffs

Mohandas Pai, DIRECTOR, HUMAN RESOURCES, INFOSYS:
You have to look at the layoffs within the context of the fear of a global financial crisis and an impending deep recession. After our annual performance appraisal last year, we let go of about 3% of people as compared to 1.5-2 %. In a good year, when people rank poorly, they tend to leave on their own. However, that wasn't the case last year as there weren't many jobs available. It was a gut-wrenching decision, but it had to be taken. We kept people on the bench for a longer time, and doubled our investment in training and education during the period. This year we are looking at hiring about 30,000 people.

Manish Sabharwal, CHAIRMAN, TEAMLEASE:
There is a new normal in the industry as companies are realising that they can do far more with less people. When the tide was high, hiring standards had gone low and companies had started converting variable costs into fixed costs. This resulted in low productivity which came back to bite them when things got bad. Companies are still not back to hiring the way they did in the past. Over the last few months when companies say that they have been hiring, it means that they are no longer firing people. The upside to all of this however is that companies are now focussed more on quality and the productivity of the employee.

Ganesh Shermon, PARTNER AND COUNTRY HEAD OF PEOPLE AND CHANGE PRACTICE, KMPG:
Companies often use the 'saving jobs' rationale to justify retrenchment. They say they are letting go of 500 people as a way of saving the remaining 3000 people. However, the way they have gone about doing this has left a lot to be desired. Many companies hired in the previous year based on predictions of growth, but it was a forward hedge that went wrong. Companies that fired people in a huff now find themselves in a situation where they have to go out and hire people at a far higher remuneration , and are still finding it difficult to attract the right kind of talent.


N S Rajan, PARTNER, NATIONAL HEAD & EMEIA LEADER - PEOPLE & ORGANISATION, ERNST & YOUNG:
When you are trying to save an organisation, there is a very fine line be tween whether you need to do something or not. When it comes to letting go of people, there are only certain situations, when the company is faced with bankruptcy or is restructuring to avoid going under, that layoffs deemed acceptable. There is a relatively simple quid pro quo between reducing the number of people and saving costs, but has deeper implications. As you slice layers from the organisation, you lose not only the individual, but also his collective years of experience within the organisation. The employer brand also needs to be safeguarded. Layoffs, done as a first resort without compassion, have a negative impact on employee engagement among the people who are still at the firm, often leading to the best talent leaving the organisation.
Source: EconomicTimes

Infosys IT Inc's biggest paymaster in 2009

Unveiling plans to hire 30,000 persons this fiscal, IT bellwether Infosys today said it has paid $134 million (nearly Rs 600 crore) in salaries in 2009-10-the highest amount in the IT industry's history in India in a year.

Infosys HR head T V Mohandas Pai said the company has already made 19,000 campus offers for fiscal 2011.

Talking to reporters, he also said Infosys envisages recruiting 1,000 personnel each for its China and US offices and around 400 in Manila, he said. The company plans to induct 5,500-6,500 laterals, he added.

"There has been a large wage increase for middle and junior level employees. At the senior level, there has been a 10 per cent increase in wages. Overall, the average wage hike has been around 14-17 per cent," he said.

Nearly 7,500 persons were promoted by Infosys during the past year, out of whom 2,500 had been impacted by the company's new employee restructuring programme, called I-Race.

As per the restructuring programme, which aimed at fitting employees into roles they were prepared for, nearly 4,500 employees had been fitted in a role lower than what they were earlier fitted into. 0ut of these 4,500 personnel, 2,500 have now been promoted and the remaining 2,000 might be promoted in October.

Infosys to give ‘unheard of’ increments

Infosys Technologies has been seeing a churn of employees in the past three quarters. The churn began after new HR initiatives, including a career-determining programme called iRace, were started.

Several thousand dissatisfied employees have quit since October. Though no official count is available, employees put the number of exits since October at over 10,000. This has forced the company to make some changes in its HR policies. One of the changes is believed to be good salary increments this time.

Some of the other changes are: Delinking the average working hours every quarter from iRace and appraisal, and scrapping the requirement of completing two compulsory internal certification programmes.

A Hyderabad-based employee quoted the HR head, Nandita Gurjar, as saying that salary raises unheard of in the company would be given this April. Gurjar was not willing to tell Financial Chronicle the size of raises; but employees expecting hikes in the range of 5 per cent to 13 per cent.

The problem HR plan – iRace (short for Infosys role and career enhancement) – introduced last June, defines roles, competencies and proficiency requirements, while linking career movements to performance and business focus. FC had then employee apprehensions about the programme.

In the past two months, Infosys employees have been rushing to the internet, and the blogosphere, in particular, as well as the company intranet with lambasting iRace. Cartoons, videos on Youtube and fake interviews have also been posted.

This led Gurjar to post her comments on the internal blog. She said, “Of late I have noticed a disturbing trend wherein employees leaving the organisation write mails about it in disparaging terms, and existing employees take joy and pleasure in circulating these mails among themselves and even outside.”

“I feel deeply hurt when I hear of such incidences. It makes me wonder, would we behave in this way if someone spoke similarly about our friends, family or country...? At what point do we move from being a bystander enjoying the fun to be an owner who takes offence at this kind of behavior?’’

According to employees, of the over 10,000 that have quit since October, 4,000 left in February. About 1,000 e-separations were filed on the intranet on a single day: December 31. Gurjar though says that only 1,200 people quit in January, 1,104 in February; and a slightly higher number of departures were expected this month.

An employee based in Bangalore said, “iRace is the reason for the exodus. After the implementation of the programme and other policies like 9.15 hours of compulsory attendance, people now dread to work in the once dream company.”

Asked about the iRace effect, Gurjar told FC that employees had confused it with promotions and linked it to the slowdown.

“The career architecture has nothing to do with promotions and is more to do with skill mapping. Employees have to remember that promotions and hikes are a result of growth and they will grow only if the company grows. Earlier, when Infosys was growing at 40 per cent plus, raises and positions were attuned to that kind of growth. The cycles now will be more relevant to today’s growth rates,” she said.

She added that the company had now started communicating the initiative and employees were beginning to understand the positives. The employee angst notwithstanding, HR consultants feel rationalisation will continue. It could benefit both company and employees in the long run.

P Thiruvengadam of Deloitte India said, “Rationalisation of the career structure is a common phenomenon in most mature organisations. While companies are young and growing rapidly, they reward employees that way too but after they reach 20-30 years and saturate, they are more conservative.”

According to Kris Lakshmikanth of The Head Hunters India, different IT companies deal with the problem of inefficiency and excess fat in different ways. Infosys had chosen this method, which was facing trouble maybe because of the timing of its launch, he added.
Source: mydigitalfc.com

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.

Infosys may have seen 4,000 staff exits in February: CLSA

Brokerage firm CLSA said over 4,000 employees may have resigned from Infosys in February alone, largely driven by an uptick in business environment that has created a huge demand for talent, after a lull. The normal attrition numbers in India’s second-largest software exporter is around 1,200 employees a month.

“There is quite a bit of industry chatter that 4,000-4,200 employees have resigned at Infosys in February. This is not officially confirmed by the management, but multiple sources are claiming the same number, including industry blogs,” CLSA said in a note to its clients. However, Infosys group HR head Nandita Gurjar said it was not true.

Mega Deals: $1 billion outsourcing contracts may come to India

Large outsourcing contracts worth up to $1 billion look set for a comeback this year, as companies from segments like retail, banking, telecom and utilities, apart from government bodies, seek to cope with renewed demand for their services and also lower their operational expenses.

Outsourcing experts and industry officials told ET last week that auto customers too are looking to award large contracts for managing their business and IT systems this year. British Petroleum’s IT contract worth $1.5 billion awarded to Indian vendors TCS, Infosys and Wipro early this year was one such mega deal.
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