Mass Layoffs in Indian IT companies?

Technoparktoday.com(May, 2017): Many large Indian IT companies are in the process of laying off employees on a scale. Those taking the hit first are mid-and senior-level professionals, however, many lower-level employees too are likely to face the axe in the coming months.Here are 6 IT and telecom companies that have announced job cuts (or are likely to) this year.

Cognizant 

Cognizant appears set to cut at least 6,000 jobs, which represents 2.3% of its total workforce, as the IT MNC struggles with growth in an IT environment that is fast shifting towards new digital services.

The company is said to be looking to cut roles that have become redundant due to the impact of automation on lower-end IT jobs.

Last week, the company announced a voluntary separation programme for directors, associate VPs and senior VPs. Some 1,000 executives are expected to be impacted by this.

Capgemini 

French IT services major Capgemini is said to be letting go off nearly 9,000 people, or nearly 5% of its workforce.

A large part of this are erstwhile employees of Igate, the company that Capgemini acquired in 2015. Capgemini had reportedly asked over 35 VP, SVPs, directors and senior directors to leave in February and 200 people were asked to leave at one of its offices in Mumbai.

When asked Capgemini about layoffs, the company did not deny that some had been asked to leave, but added that it expects to recruit over 20,000 new team members in India this year.

Infosys 

Indian IT giant Infosys too is likely to announce job cuts in the coming days. According to sources, nearly 1,000 employees in job level 6 and above (group project managers, project managers, senior architects and higher levels) are expected to be asked to leave.

Managers at these levels have been asked to identify, in terms of performance, the bottom 10% of their reportees.

On its part, Infosys said that its performance management process provides for a bi-annual assessment of performance.

Wipro 

India’s third-largest software exporter Wipro too is said to have initiated moves to trim excess layers of managers and executives inside the company and make the organization leaner and more decentralised as part of CEO Abidali Neemuchwala’s broader strategy.

As part of this de-layering exercise, Wipro is removing additional layers such as that of a “project leader”, which are increasingly being rendered redundant as automation kicks in big-time and newer, more specialised roles emerge in India’s $160-billion IT industry.

Tata teleservices

Tata Teleservices recently fired between 500 and 600 employees.As many as 500-600 employees are said to have been impacted by the lay offs in sales and other related functions, according to people familiar with the matter. The lay-offs have been done across locations.

The severance package being offered to the employees impacted by the decision is one-month’s salary for every year of service.

The layoff will affect the IT job market and job opportunities also, the cascading effects will be reflected in other IT related sectors also.