500 TCS staffers resign

Announces change in HR guard.

Information Technology (IT) firms appear to be hardening their stance when it comes to assessing employee performance to raise employee productivity in the wake of a rising rupee.

For instance, India's largest IT services provider, Mumbai-based Tata Consultancy Services, today said that around 500 (around 0.5 per cent of its total employee strength of over 100,000) of its staff had resigned due to poor performance.

TCS' move follows the cut that the company had effected on the portion of variable pay linked to the employees performance, reducing the salary by about 1.5 per cent for the January-March 2008 quarter.

Commenting on the staff-cut, a TCS spokesperson told Business Standard: "Our company has a biannual appraisal system "" one between June and July, and the other in January-February "" when we rate employees on a scale of 1-5 (5 being the highest). Those employees who score a low figure of 2, for instance, are asked to either repeat their training programme or are sent for counselling "" depending on whether they are freshers or middle management executives. Those who cannot meet the performance requirements of our company are asked to look for another job."

Last year too, around 500 people suffered a similar fate since they could not meet the performance rating numbers, the spokesperson pointed out.

In the third quarter ending December 31, 2007, TCS added 4,037 net staff taking its total headcount to 108,229, up from 83,500 a year ago. At the close of trade, TCS shares were down around 2.72 per cent at Rs 949 on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Meanwhile, TCS also announced that it has appointed Ajoyendra Mukherjee as the global head of human resources following incumbent S Padmanabhan's move to Tata Power as an executive director, operations.

"S Padmanabhan (Paddy) has been an integral part of TCS' success and growth in the last two decades. We are particularly appreciative of the tremendous leadership and contribution he has made in the area of HR, a function he took over four years back," said S Ramadorai, CEO and MD.

"We would like to welcome Ajoy Mukherjee in his new role which he is well-equipped to perform given his vast experience in this company and industry."

A graduate from BITS (Pilani), Mukherjee joined the company in 1980, and was vice-president and head of operations, eastern region. Ritu Anand has been appointed as the deputy global head of human resources and will report to Ajoy Mukherjee.

IBM too, which has 73,000 staffers in India, is working on ways to certify the skill levels of its employees. A week ago, the firm laid off 500 to 600 freshers.

Other IT firms may follow suit, said analysts. An IBM spokesperson said the move was "no hindrance to the business. It was merely based on the employees performance", adding that IBM India today expanded its operations in UP with a new Global Delivery Centre in Noida.

The company will open another centre in the vicinity. Both centres will house close to 3,000 employees once fully staffed.