4. Infosys Technologies: A Question of Satisfaction

Reduction in salary increments: 49.2% Change in variable-fixed composition: 49.2% Cut in cost to the company: 42.4% Reduction in perks: 33.9%

Stable and healthy HR parameters including low attrition and high retention. Excellent external messaging

Serious and growing employee dissatisfaction on most counts. Salaries and appraisal systems continue to be a big pain point

I am very stressed at work: 20.4% I get a sense of great professional and personal accomplishment from the work I do here: 64%

I would definitely recommend this company to a close friend of mine: 73% Every morning, I look forward to a day at work: 59%

This was a long time coming. Faced with falling employee satisfaction for three years in a row, Infosys finally slipped in the overall BES ranking this year. The fall would have been steeper but for two reasons–its good score on HR parameters like attrition and retention and the fact that employees across most of the industry still see it as the dream company to work for (ranked 1st).

That apart, the story of the company this year was one of growing employee dissatisfaction on just about every parameter. Overall satisfaction fell for the third year in a row from #7 to #13 and now to #16; satisfaction on training was down (ranked 13th) as was satisfaction on salaries (19th), appraisal systems (18th) and people (17th). It ranked among the bottom 3 in 17 of the 55 statements measured. More importantly, it did not rank among the top 3 on any single one of them. 

Despite an elaborate and fairly sophisticated HR process, the company has always had issues of employee satisfaction. This time though there was also an increased feeling of alienation and disengagement. It ranked the lowest on the statements: “I feel my opinion counts in the company;” “I am encouraged to take risks at work;” and “People around me are passionate about their work.” The disengagement appeared to have also spread to areas that have traditionally been seen as the company’s strengths–infrastructure (ranked at #9 on that statement), corporate governance (#11) and open and transparent policies and procedures (#18). Put together,
the company fell in the Preferred Employer rankings from 6 to 10 as only 40% of its employees voted for it as their dream company (down from 70% the year before). The upside of the coin two other IT services major in this survey (HCL Tech and Wipro) ranked even below it on most employee satisfaction parameters bar salary. The one big exception of course was TCS, which had a significantly better year than Infosys.  

That said, however, the company’s external messaging continues to be excellent. It continues to rank as Indian IT’s number one dream company with no significant drop in the percentage of IT employees across the industry continuing to vote for it.