With one of its biggest markets, the US, becoming increasingly hostile, Indian IT companies are resorting to cost cutting, mostly by slimming down the workforce. The latest to join the bandwagon is IT major Wipro.
According to reports, the company has laid off between 300 and 600 people as part of its performance appraisal process. The number is expected to rise in coming months.
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The company, India's third largest software services exporter by revenue, has been grappling for the past few years with tepid revenue growth in an industry whose landscape is changing fast due to automation. The company had 1.79 lakh employees as of December 31.
Asked about the matter, Wipro said in a statement that it undertakes a rigorous performance appraisal process on a regular basis to align its workforce with business objectives, strategic priorities of the organisation and requirement of its clients.
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"This systematic and comprehensive performance evaluation process triggers a series of actions such as mentoring, retraining and upskilling. The performance appraisal may also lead to the separation of some employees from the company and these numbers vary from year to year," it added. It declined to provide any specific figures or information about which divisions have been impacted.
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The move comes on the heels of larger rival Cognizant, which has about 75% of its employees in India, initiating a process of eliminating 6,000 jobs, which represents over 2% of its total workforce.
Another IT giant, Infosys which also heavily relies on the US market had decided to cut down on fresh hirings by as much as 60 per cent. Tata Consultancy Services, the country¡¯s largest software exporter, had ?said that it will focus on skilling 100,000 of its employees in digital technology.