NEW DELHI: Ever since Chief Executive Vishal
Sikka took the helm at Infosys, his focus has clearly been on the employees-
from easing internal processes to encouraging out-of-the-box thinking. Now,
possibly the first time ever, the IT outsourcing major has gifted some high
performers Apple's latest iPhones as a token of appreciation.
InfosysBSE 0.07 % has given 3,000 iPhone6
handsets to employees who have done "extremely well", across
verticals and across geographies, ET learns. Labelled "holiday
bonus", the phones were delivered to the deserving employees along with a
gift-themed letter signed by Sikka.
"Two people I know received the iPhones,
and they were also surprised. We have heard the company is rewarding the high
performers. We have received no formal communication, and do not know who the
high performers are because the CRR's (consolidated relative ranking) have not
been intimated to us yet," said a Europe-based employee who did not wish
to be named.
The CRR is the ranking system Infosys adopts
to evaluate its employees as part of the annual appraisal cycle. The rankings
are between 1 and 4, with 1 being the highest. Some exemplary employees
however, get a ranking of 1+. The CRR for this cycle has not been announced yet
so the "gifts" came as a surprise for the people who received them.
Infosys has grappled with high attrition rates in past year, which crossed 20% in the July-September quarter. However, Chief Operating Officer Pravin Rao told ET earlier that he expects attrition at the IT major to come down to 13-15% by the end of June 2015.
Sikka has engaged with the employees in several ways, heeding to some long pending issues. For instance, at a town hall address to employees in October, he relaxed the dress code norm which required male employees to wear ties once a week. He also allowed access to Internet for all employees across job levels, called for simplified internal processes and increased the budgets for team awards.
Infosys has grappled with high attrition rates in past year, which crossed 20% in the July-September quarter. However, Chief Operating Officer Pravin Rao told ET earlier that he expects attrition at the IT major to come down to 13-15% by the end of June 2015.
Sikka has engaged with the employees in several ways, heeding to some long pending issues. For instance, at a town hall address to employees in October, he relaxed the dress code norm which required male employees to wear ties once a week. He also allowed access to Internet for all employees across job levels, called for simplified internal processes and increased the budgets for team awards.
Gifting the iPhones is being seen as another
step towards rewarding employees to boost their morale. "I do not remember
anyone having received this kind of reward for their work at the company before
this. Let's hope this is not a one-off thing and will inspire people to perform
better within their job roles," said another employee who has been with
the company for over nine years.
Sikka has also been stressing on the need to
encourage "design thinking", a creative and systematic approach t o
problem-solving by placing the user at the centre of the experience.
"Vishal Sikka's initiative to train employees on areas like design
thinking is a step in the right direction but the fat in the middle management
needs to be trimmed and trained to enable employees at the bottom of the
pyramid to use the knowledge they have gained...," said Hansa Iyengar
Analyst - IT Services and Sourcing at Ovum.
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