Infy appraisal may lead to 1,500 exits

India’s second-largest ITservices firm Infosys Technologies said today that its annual performance appraisal exercise concluded recently would affect around 3.5 per cent of the company’s workforce. Infosys has around 105,000 employees, including around 45,000 trainees (who were not included in the appraisal exercise).

“Among the 2,100-odd non-performers identified by the company at the end of the annual appraisal cycle, 850 people left on their own, while about 600 people have been put under the performance improvement plan (PIP). The balance 650-odd employees will be provided with outplacement by the agencies hired by us,” said TV Mohandas Pai, head, HR, Education & Research, Infosys.

He added that out of the 2,100 employees (3.5 per cent of 60,000) in the bottom pile on perfomance, only around around 650 employees have been asked to quit.

Infosys said the company undertook annual appraisal exercise on a routine basis every year. However, the list of the non-performers, identified on the basis of their consolidated relative ranking (CRR), varies between 1 per cent and 5 per cent. In the previous annual appraisal cycle (2007-08), the company had identified close to 2.2 per cent of the employees as non-performers.

The ongoing global financial meltdown has put severe pressure on the Indian IT services providers. Most firms have enforced strict giudelines on employee performance.

The IT industry is trying to tide over the crisis by adopting a multi-pronged strategy that includes reduction of bench (unutilised employees), raising the performance bar of the employees and cutting down on unnecessaty expenses including travel and boa-rding.