9-month severance pay for Cognizant’s top executives
IT is under duress. It's not only Trump, but also automation and digital technology have been pushing IT companies to shake up their entire workforce.
Technology-major Cognizant has asked some very senior management employees - Directors and Senior VPs - for golden handshake. The company has floated a Voluntary separation option for a few senior members wherein a minimum of nine-month salary will be paid as compensation under the initiative, depending on the position of the employee.
People Matters is awaiting response from Cognizant PR.
Meanwhile, as reported by a publication, a Cognizant spokesperson said, "There could be at least 1,000 colleagues who may be eligible for this. We are offering a voluntary separation incentive to some eligible leaders, representing a very small percentage of our total workforce. It is related to our overall company strategy to accelerate our shift to digital and to deliver high-quality, sustainable growth."
Cognizant in all of its recent media interactions has talked about how future of work will be about leveraging digital technologies.
As per reports, the company will continue to hire across all of its practices and is ensuring that it has the "right expertise to help its clients." The company is also focusing on extensive investments in the training and re-skilling of their team, and on significantly expanding its local workforces in the US and other markets around the globe, where it operates.
Post the appraisal, the company decided to reduce its staff in this fiscal. The process could see about 2.5 per cent of its staff losing their jobs. Up till December last year, Cognizant employed around 260,000 employees globally, with a majority of them (75 per cent) working in India. In 2016, they fired around two per cent of their employees, and approximately one per cent of their employees were sacked in 2015.
The company’s top executives including Chief Executive Officer Francisco D'Souza saw his performance bonus declining by 20 per cent in 2016, as the company slipped on targets and faced criticism from the investors over its business model.