Infosys announces salary hikes, promotions from Jan 2021; special incentive pay for junior employees

New Delhi: India’s second-largest IT services firm Infosys on Wednesday said it will roll out salary hikes and promotions across all levels effective 1 January. Infosys is also giving 100 percent variable pay, along with a special incentive for the second quarter. The Bengaluru-based company has 2,40,208 employees at the end of September 2020 quarter. “Recognising the continuing stellar commitment from our employees during these times, we are paying out variable pay for the quarter at 100 percent. We will pay a one-time special incentive in Q3 for our junior employees,” Infosys CEO and MD Salil Parekh said during a virtual briefing. The salary hike process will restart now and will be effective on 1 January, 2021, he added. “We restarted promotions in the last quarter at our junior levels, and this will now be expanded to all our levels,” Parekh said. Infosys had earlier said it was suspending promotions and pay hikes amid the epidemic-led slowdown in business but would honour all the job offers it had made. Infosys COO Pravin Rao said the quantum of salary hikes will be identical to those seen in previous years. Last year, the average wage hike by Infosys in India was around 6 per cent, while it was 1-1.5 percent outside the country. In the September 2020 quarter, Infosys added 975 people. Its voluntary attrition for IT services on an annualised basis declined to 7.8 percent as compared to 18.3 percent in the year-ago period. Rao said attrition has come down significantly than what is typically seen around this time of the year. He added that this was on account of multiple factors, including the steps taken by the IT major towards employee engagement and safety during the pandemic. Infosys on Wednesday said its consolidated net profit grew by 20.5 percent to Rs 4,845 crore for the September 2020 quarter, while its revenues rose 8.5 percent to Rs 24,570 crore over the year-ago period. The company has also revised its guidance upwards to 2-3 percent growth in FY21 in constant currency terms from its previous outlook of up to 2 per cent growth in topline. “Increase in revenue and margin outlook for FY21 is due to the continued trust clients have in us,” Parekh said.