Up to 15,000 workers face uncertain future as Infosys considers cutbacks
Infosys has announced plans to reduce its current workforce by almost 15,000. This will see the Bangalore-headquartered IT, business consulting and outsourcing firm lay off about 2,200 senior managers and 4,000-10,000 associates and middle-level employees, as well as 50 senior executives, according to sources close to the company. Justifying the move, the company has said “involuntary attrition” can sometimes be required in any high-performance organization and should not be taken as unduly significant.
Pravin Rao, the company’s COO, has gone on record, however, as saying that the layoffs in Q2 this year had been higher than in the previous quarter, while also spelling out that, in tech services for Q3, attrition had been 19.4% overall, with voluntary departures accounting for the majority of that at 18%. In recent months, a number of IT outsourcing businesses have resorted to reducing headcount amid increased demand for a smaller number of highly-skilled staff by clients, the trend to onshore delivery staff and an increased level of engagement between clients and mid-cap services companies, according to Phil Fersht, CEO of HfS Research, a Cambridge headquartered high-tech business consultancy.
