Information Technology (IT) major Cognizant Technology Solutions has reached out to its employees to convey that it is not planning any layoffs. The company sought to dismiss the concerns among engineers in India that they might be eased out in favour of hiring more resources in the US.
In a letter circulated within the company, Rajeev Mehta, president of Cognizant, said company's performance review policy was in line with industry best practices and it was necessary to meet the desired skillset to fulfil clients' needs and business goals.
"Resulting actions are performance-based and generally consistent year to year. Our performance management is based on having the right skill mix to succeed in the digital economy, globally. We are committed to being a meritocracy. We believe that this is good for all our associates around the world," he wrote in the mail, which has been reviewed by Business Standard.
"You may also have also seen media reports that associates are being counselled out of Cognizant to allow us to hire more US-based associates in line with the US government's sentiment. This is not true. We have been ramping up our recruiting efforts in the US for a number of years. Likewise, we continue to hire in local markets around the world, including in India," he added.
Mehta's letter to the employees comes in the backdrop of reports alleging Cognizant is trimming its workforce due to a slowdown in the IT business and a shift towards automation.
Trade unions, however, alleged that several Cognizant employees reached out to them for support after being asked to resign by the company. The Forum for IT Employees (FITE), which has been organising protests against forced resignations in IT service companies, has approached labour departments in Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Maharashtra against Cognizant. The NDLF IT Employees Wing, has said that it is forming a union in the offices of Cognizant and Wipro in Tamil Nadu.
In his letter, Mehta also said that Cognizant offered the Voluntary Separation Programme to its D+ associates in India and the US for the first time even as its peers have been following the practice of offering separation packages in exchange of resignation.
"As its name makes clear, the VSP is voluntary. No one is required or even asked to participate. We believe this program benefits Cognizant, our associates who opted in and others looking to grow their careers. As we pivot to the digital, the VSP allows us to optimise our structure and skills mix; participants have the opportunity to explore other opportunities; and the VSP makes way for the next generation of leaders to step up," wrote Mehta.
Company has been re-skilling employees through training sessions since last year and expects to enhance the digital skills of around 1,00,000 employees by the end of 2017. Digital competence will be enhanced by training employees in Data Science, Big Data and Pivotal Cloud Foundry, among others.
Cognizant has been hiring professionals from across the world, including in top campuses within and beyond India. At presnet, the company is working towards achieving its profitability targets. The C2020 reorganisation, which was among the changes that the company decided to implement last year, was delivering results for the compnay, said Mehta.
"Looking forward, our pipeline is extremely healthy, we are maintaining a solid win rate and we continue to win large transformational deals across our three lines of service," wrote Mehta.