NEW DELHI,OCT 11:
The Indian tech sector has already started reporting a large number of casualties at senior level due to digital mainstreaming. Worse, more job losses are on the anvil. Top HR sources say many league players are expected to join Cognizant and announce mass exits of senior talent in the next couple of quarters.
Cognizant has laid off some 200 senior employees at the director level and above this year in a bid to align its talent pool to the newer digital requirements. The employees have been given a severance payout of four months. The process would cost the company a sum of $35 million, as per a recent report. The industry won’t be surprised if the next batch of “involuntary senior IT retirees” came from lead player TCS, a top-heavy firm, said a senior source at the company.“All lead IT firms will be forced to lay off some percentage of their senior staff as all won’t be able to understand the digital play. So, the digital bloodbath is expected to continue for a year and companies are already letting people go in small batches so that the morale impact and media attention are minimised,’’ said a senior HR executive at a top IT firm on condition of anonymity.So, it’s critical for Indian IT to readjust its people pyramids to maintain the tempo and momentum of growth in its digital transformation journey.Indian tech vendors need to readjust their people pyramids, flatten the big belly bulge and start hiring people with creative skills, design thinking, story-telling ability, hard core engineering knowledge and domain expertise to be successful in the digital play.
