Infosys puts off promotions and salary hikes, freezes hiring, says no layoffs

Infosys CFO Nilanjan Roy, through a video conferencing call, said the company has stopped hiring, promotions and salary hikes in an attempt to manage costs in order to offset the damage caused by the Covid-19 pandemic as well as the lockdown.

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, IT giant Infosys has said pressure on margins could be visible in the near term, but the company is seeing increased client interest in cloud services.

Infosys top brass also said it will honour the job offers it has extended to the markets, in order to enhance the skill-sets it can bring to recovery-focused client environments. (MINT PHOTO.)

Infosys CFO Nilanjan Roy, through a video conferencing call, said the company has stopped hiring, promotions and salary hikes in an attempt to manage costs in order to offset the damage caused by the Covid-19 pandemic as well as the lockdown.

“Infosys will honour all hiring commitments it has made,” Roy said.

He further added that retail, travel and hospitality, energy and oil segments have been the most affected in the current environment. According to Roy, cards and payments sectors will also struggle.

COO Pravin Rao said that the IT major is not looking at any Covid-19-related layoffs “at this stage”.

Rao said that the firm’s employees will return to offices in a phased manner. “We are in no hurry to get employees back to offices. Our first phase of returns, when it happens, will be likely to get 5% employees returning, and in the next phase will total about 15%,” he said.

Infosys top brass also said it will honour the job offers it has extended to the markets, in order to enhance the skill-sets it can bring to recovery-focused client environments.

“Considering the business uncertainty emanating from Covid-19, the company is unable to provide guidance on revenues and margins for FY21 at this stage. The company will provide guidance after visibility improves,” the company said in its stock exchange filing.

CEO Salil Parekh said Infosys team has achieved 93 per cent remote working on Monday and has been ensuring consistent service delivery for clients in this rapidly changing environment.

“While the immediate short-term will be challenging, looking ahead, we can see that there is a strong interest to consolidate with partners with high-quality and agile service delivery and strong financial resilience. I am confident we will emerge from this stronger,” he added.