Mid-tier software cos weeding away non-performers

CHENNAI: Never in the past has retrenching excess people or weeding away non-performers caught so much attention.

Almost all mid-tier software services companies are tightening the screws on non-performers and are handing out pink slips.

Market is agog with names of almost every tier II software services company laying off people. However, a cross section HR heads of companies TOI spoke to, flatly denied any move to retrench people.

Instead they insisted that the process of appraisal just got over and the companies were only "weeding away flab or removing non-performers from their rolls."

Adventity BPO's HR head, Rajesh Balaji said, "We have not sacked anybody. As an organization, we work on a performance improvement plan which comes in cycles. I don't have the exact number of people who have been asked to leave, but I can tell you it is around 250 or less and that too this has happened over the past few months."



Adventity has offices in Chennai and Mumbai besides other locations. The company has 4,300 staffers across the globe.

"In Chennai alone, the poor performers maybe a handful, less than five," he said.

In the case of Hexaware, according to company insiders, as many as 500 people have been shown the door across locations.

K Balasundaram, senior VP-HR, Hexaware, denied any retrenchment. A company source, however, said that these were lay-offs of non-performers after appraisal. Incidentally, in a related development, Hexaware decided to down its shutters in Gurgaon. This would see 130 of its staffers out of job, even as they have been encouraged to move to other centres in Chennai, Mumbai or Pune.

Ramco Systems, a mid-tier company based out Chennai has seen off 142 persons. "Elimination due to poor performance is a natural process. All this while, we had allowed these people to stay on, but since our Ramco Virtual Works platform - a technology platform, is maturi ng and since productivity levels are increasing, we have cut flab. Our annual appraisal happens between April and July and the bottom 7% of employees have been shown the door," a senior company official said. Ramco now has 1,800 people on its rolls.

Quintegra, another Chennai-based software solutions company has sent out 20 persons. "We have asked 20 trainees to leave. They were all freshers who were not upto the mark. None of whom we have asked to leave are in the middle or senior management," Shankararaman Vaidyanathan, MD of Quintegra, said.

At a recent HR Summit in Chennai, Nasscom's president, Som Mittal told this correspondent that the Indian IT industry was maturing and improving productivity. As these levels increase, there was bound to be an effect on employees at the bottom.

"It is still a fraction, but the good news is that the industry is getting serious of cutting flab," he said.
According to industry insiders, the number of people each of these tier II company is filtering is a small portion of their overall strength.

Courtesy: Times of India