Worried about exits, Infosys moves to soothe staff

A strong rebound in the economy and rising job prospects, peculiarly, seems to have the top management of Infosys worried as hard facts of employee attrition hit home.

The software major is going out of way to woo employees while setting the pace for pay hikes and promotions. So much so that S. Gopalkrishnan CEO and managing director of Infosys shot off a mail to Infoscions last week seeking to assuage hurt sentiments, obliquely admitting that the management was willing to address some of the critical issues that employees are not happy about. "I understand that you would like me to look at some of the concerns you have raised seriously and resolve them," said Gopalkrishnan in his letter.

He added that the organisation believes that employees are key and the force behind every success. "We have formed a task force to look into and champion employee engagement in every unit," he said.

Officially, Infosys says its attrition level is 11.6 per cent for Oct-Dec 2009. However, industry sources say the current quarter, whose figures will be disclosed only next month, has been a matter of concern for the company in view of a higher-than-expected departure of employees. Company officials are not giving details.

Infosys's policy mandates its employees to be physically present for a little more than nine hours a day in the campus. It also has a new iRACE policy that requires an employee to spend a minimum number of years before consideration for promotion. The company has also introduced new certification exams linked to promotions and salary increases. An employee is expected to clear two such exams in a year. Company insiders and ex-Infoscions are hardly surprised by the latest letter from Gopalakrishnan. "Resentment has been brewing for over a year against certain HR initiatives of the company. With the recession waning away and more employment opportunities coming up people are opting out," said Devesh (name changed) a software engineer at Infosys.

The management, however, sought to downplay the issues, stating the company has been continuously changing its HR policies to keep the troops happy and motivated. "We have a robust feedback mechanism in the company and policies are not static. Based on feedback and context, we have been modifying and tweaking policies for best results," a company spokesperson said.

PC Jargon

ALPHA - Software undergoes alpha testing as a first step in getting user feedback. Alpha is Latin for "doesn't work."
BETA - Software undergoes beta testing shortly before it's released. Beta is Latin for "still doesn't work."
COMPUTER - Instrument of torture. The first computer was invented by Roger "Duffy" Billingsly, a British scientist. In a plot to overthrow Adolf Hitler, Duffy disguised himself as a German ally and offered his invention as a gift to the surly dictator. The plot worked. On April 8, 1945, Adolf became so enraged at the "Incompatible File Format" error message that he shot himself. The war ended soon after Hitler's death, and Duffy began working for IBM.
CPU - Central propulsion unit. The CPU is the computer's engine. It consists of a hard drive, an interface card and a tiny spinning wheel that's powered by a running rodent - a gerbil if the machine is a 286, a ferret if it's a 386, and a ferret on speed if it's a 486.
DEFAULT DIRECTORY - Black hole. Default directory is where all files that you need disappear to.
ERROR MESSAGE - Terse, baffling remark used by programmers to place blame on users for the program's shortcomings.
FILE - A document that has been saved with an unidentifiable name. It helps to think of a file as something stored in a file cabinet - except when you try to remove the file, the cabinet gives you an electric shock and tells you the file format is unknown.
HARDWARE - Collective term for any computer-related object that can be kicked or battered.
HELP - The feature that assists in generating more questions. When the help feature is used correctly, users are able to navigate through a series of Help screens and end up where they started from without learning anything.
INPUT/OUTPUT - Information is input from the keyboard as intelligible data and output to the printer as unrecognizable junk.
INTERIM RELEASE - A programmer's feeble attempt at repentance.
MEMORY - Of computer components, the most generous in terms of variety, and the skimpiest in terms of quantity.
PRINTER - A joke in poor taste. A printer consists of three main parts: The case, the jammed paper tray, and the blinking red light.
PROGRAMMERS - Computer avengers. Once members of that group of high school nerds who wore tape on their glasses, played Dungeons and Dragons, and memorized Star Trek episodes; now millionaires who create "user-friendly" software to get revenge on whoever gave them noogies.
REFERENCE MANUAL - Object that raises the monitor to eye level. Also used to compensate for that short table leg.
SCHEDULED RELEASE DATE - A carefully calculated date determined by estimating the actual shipping date and subtracting six months from it.
USER-FRIENDLY - Of or pertaining to any feature, device or concept that makes perfect sense to a programmer.
USERS - Collective term for those who stare vacantly at a monitor. Users are divided into three types: Novice, intermediate, and expert.
=> Novice Users - People who are afraid that simply pressing a key might break their computer.
=> Intermediate Users - People who don't know how to fix their computer after they've just pressed a key that broke it.
=> Expert Users. People who break other people's computers.