Hiring Hit As Cognizant Undergoes Restructuring; Layoffs May Touch Hundreds

Cognizant is set for another round of layoffs as it looks to cuts costs and boost growth, reports the Economic Times.

The cuts will affect a few hundred employees, mostly those with more than eight years of experience, with new CEO Brian Humphries keen to bring down spends, the report added.

Moneycontrol could not independently verify the report.

The number of layoffs would also depend on the quarterly performance. Cognizant has already curbed non-essential travel and was exploring the possibility of adding a variable pay component into salaries to bring down costs.

“It is part of the appraisal process; it is getting stricter. If you were a marginal performer or have not been allocated (a project), then they would look at beginning a separation process,” the newspaper quoted a source saying.

The company attributed narrow margins to higher employee additions against revenues. It had 288,200 staff as on June 30, a seven percent increase from last year’s 268,900. As per the annual report, it had 281,600 employees till 2018-end of whom 194,700 were from India (69 percent).

The report said that participants of a Facebook group ‘Cognizant Freshers’ claimed that they had received offer letters in March but without a joining date. The source told ET that the delay in onboarding freshers is “obvious as many people (present employees) are sitting without projects”.

Cognizant did respond to ET’s queries about the lay-offs. A spokesperson, however, said, “We have already on-boarded several thousand students who are currently undergoing training in Cognizant Academy, and the rest will be on board in a staggered fashion, as is the process every year. Cognizant has a long history of honouring all campus offers and there is no reason to believe that this year will be any different.”―Money Control