Mehta, however, did not specify the number of senior employees being targeted in this round of layoffs.
Cognizant may downsize jobs at senior level, a move that would cost the company about USD 35 million in severance during the rest of the year, according to a report by The Economic Times.
The firm said the move will make room for juniors and allow associates to grow.
"This one is really targeted towards the senior-end of the pyramid. It is not voluntary, this is more involuntary. We are trying to clean up the higher-end of the pyramid and allow our associates to grow," Raj Mehta, president at Cognizant told in an interview to the paper.
Mehta, however, did not specify the number of senior employees being targeted in this round of layoffs.
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The company has already slashed headcount by nearly 4,000 in 2017. It had also offered nearly 400 senior executives a voluntary retirement scheme, a move that the US-based company said will help it save about $60 million annually.
Mehta said that this is a global exercise, without any focus on a particular region, as the company’s headcount had grown in the quarter. In the second quarter, Cognizant’s headcount rose by 7,500 to 2,68,900. The firm follows the January to December calendar for its financial year.
Cognizant Technology Solutions on Thursday reported a net profit of USD 456 million, around 3 percent lower than in the corresponding quarter a year ago. The company reported a revenue of $4.01 billion for the quarter under review, up 9.2 percent year on year.
The fall in bottomline was mostly because of the depreciation of the Indian rupee during the quarter and the initial funding of the Cognizant US Foundation.
In a post-earnings conference call, Cognizant CFO Karen McLoughlin said the company had split its process for raises and promotions. Under the new process, the junior employees would receive their raises and promotions in the third quarter, and the senior employees in the fourth quarter.
“The good news is that we had a really healthy margin to fund the raises and promotions,” Mehta said, adding that the company was still going through the appraisal process. He did not disclose the average hike the employees could receive.