Infosys on Saturday said that it has no plans for lay-offs because of the outbreak of the coronavirus, but it flagged off a future risk if there is a second wave of the virus.
Replying to shareholders’ queries during the annual general body meeting, Infosys COO Pravin Rao said that the company is committed to honouring all the offer letters and reviewing the joining dates. He said that the new normal will be a hybrid model, with some employees working from home and the others at the office. He also said that the company’s attrition rates have declined, and he expected a further downward trend.
Hiring plans
Company chairman Nandan Nilekani said that Infosys has over 10,000 Americans working in their centres in the US, and that the company has plans to hire more of them in the near future. He was replying to a question from a shareholder on how the company plans to tackle the situation arising out of the recent ban on H-1B visas by the US government.
He also said the company plans to open four more technology and innovation hubs. He also said that Infosys has hired over 19,000 college graduates from campuses across India.
He said Infosys has strengthened its expertise in cloud, smart automation, workplace transformation, to help clients accelerate and scale their digital projects in the business environment impacted by Covid-19 pandemic.
Both Pravin Rao and the company’s CEO Salil Parekh said Infosys is actively considering acquisitions outside India, especially in areas like cloud, data and business platforms and also on captive centres.
The COO said the GST network has staggered the load and hence Infosys is using the time to tackle various issues concerning its filings.
Whistleblower’s charges
Nilekani said the allegations made by the whistleblower had been closed as the SEC and the company’s own investigations had proved their charges completely false. The company also said while the retail and financial services are more impacted, healthcare and communications verticals are expected to show better result.
Parekh said while the company was concerned about the geopolitical escalation with regard to issues concerning India and China, Infosys’ China centre continues to service its clients. “We are a global company with operations in several countries, including China. We will comply with the government directives as we have always done before.”
He also said the possible sale of Panaya had been taken off the market and the company has refocused its activities and is making steady progress there.
Debt-free enterprise
The CEO also said the company had cash and cash equivalents of $3.6 billion and is a debt-free enterprise, which is of huge significance during these times.
In FY2020, Infosys' revenues grew 9.8 per cent in constant currency terms to $12.8 billion. The company has enabled 93 per cent of over 2,40,000 employees, across 46 countries, to work from home.
Chief Executive Salil Parekh said that Infosys changed directions to adjust to the crisis, and is focusing on employee safety, client service delivery and addressing new client needs, which are cloud, digital, cost efficiency, and automation.
The IT services major has adopted a massive re-skilling programme combined with agile delivery, focused more on localization to build a resilient business in view of the ban on H-1B visas.