Fewer seniors will have to manage more employees.
Infosys Technologies, the country’s second largest IT services provider, has made around 75 senior roles redundant. These roles are in band D (generally, delivery managers who manage multiple projects and above), according to a report.
While some of those affected would be redeployed, it is possible that others may be asked to leave. The company’s spokesperson declined to comment on this detail, beyond saying, “We have restructured the organisation globally to make it more responsive to customers and sharpen our focus on delivery. This is a periodic exercise in which a small number of roles become redundant.” The company would also not comment on the type of roles made redundant.
Infosys had earlier asked about 2,500 employees to leave on the basis of their “performance matrix.” It had also put another 5,000-odd, or five per cent of its workforce, under the scanner.
However, it simultaneously said it would honour job offer letters given to 20,000 students. With all these measures in place, Infosys CEO Kris Gopalakrishnan recently said there would be no salary cuts.
Infosys is not the only software company making some senior managerial roles redundant. India’s largest IT firm, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), and Wipro are doing likewise. Earlier, the ratio of managers to juniors in TCS was around 1:4, at Wipro it was 1:6 and at Infosys it would have been 1: 8 or 9. These ratios have now increased by 25-30 per cent.
“We have seen that these players have increased the span of control by 25 per cent, so that they can bring non-redundancy at the managerial level. It also means they will not be hiring more and will manage from within,” said a human resource consultant working closely with these companies.
The consultant said this would mean huge cost savings. “Earlier, if there were two senior persons managing a $50 million project each, a single senior manager will now manage a $100 million account and until each achieves his targets, they will not get any extra resources,” he said.
