Wipro to offer higher pay hikes to employees, tighten customer focus

CHENNAI: Good times are here for Wipro employees as the company is getting more generous with pay hikes this year. Sources in the company say the hike is likely to be between 12% to 15% this year, which is a considerable increase over last year's 8% to 10%. In an internal mail to all employees, Wipro CEO T K Kurien promised to provide an update by the first week of April on the "timing for salary increase process for the IT business".

Come April, Wipro will see changes in all strategic business units, service lines and functions. In the letter, Kurien acknowledges the fact that "of late there is a drop in pace" and that the company is taking the necessary steps to rectify that. "The next few months will require intense effort and dedication from each one of us. Our hearts and minds have to commit to it," the newly appointed CEO said in the letter.

The company has consulted an external strategy firm to finalize how to goal service lines and business units which will be shared with the leadership teams by next week. The global delivery organization of the company is increasing its focus towards the "workforce management group and talent incubation" and a cross functional team is working on the data review and structure finalization "to migrate all our data to the new organization structure by middle of April".

He observed that while customers trust Wipro on delivery, some of them did not always get a "consistent experience" and that the company aggressively plans to address this issue. He stressed on the need to create a new Wipro which is "bolder, simpler and leaner".

In view of the crisis in Japan, from where the company moved 400 employees to safer locations, he said Wipro is generating funds for relief and rehabilitation and encouraged employees to contribute.

(With inputs from Mini Joesph Tejaswi)