Infosys is taking some ‘no regrets’ steps to rationalise costs during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, and those include suspending promotions and salary hikes, and freezing hiring beyond the offers already made.

The company, however, will not lay off employees due to the coronavirus pandemic, the management said on Monday during its Q4 earnings.

Pravin Rao, the Infosys COO, said that the company will honour the 35,000 offers--mostly campus hirings and some lateral hiring--that have already been made.

Last week, Wipro said it was considering "all options" to keep costs under control, including sending some of its staff on furloughs and leaves as it prepares for a hit on its revenues from the coronavirus pandemic.

TCS had said it would honour all offers and will not retrench employees, while also announcing a freeze on salary hikes, as the IT sector braces for the peak of the impact from the global pandemic in the first two quarters of FY21.

“We have taken some ‘no regrets‘ steps. We have frozen salary hikes, and suspended salary hikes and promotions,” Infosys CFO Niranjan Roy said, adding that the company expects pressure on margins from the crisis.

COO Rao said that while cost-control initiatives are being taken, they will not lead to retrenchment or furloughs. “We are not looking at COVID-related layoffs. However, involuntarily attrition will continue based on performance," Rao said.

In Q4 on a standalone basis, overall attrition at Infosys came in at 18.2 percent, marginally higher than in Q3. However, involuntary attrition was 50 basis points lower than in Q3.

"We have suspended promotions and increments. We are not looking at furloughs, but look at other cost-control initiatives,” Rao said.

“We will honour all offers made on campuses and to laterals; in fact, we onboarded many laterals during the lockdown period as well. We will make 35,000 plus offers in FY21,” he added.

Infosys currently has 93 percent of its 2.42 lakh employees working from home, with the percentage higher on the IT side, lower on the BPM side.

Even as the central government has allowed IT companies to operate at 50 percent capacity, several states such as Delhi and Karnataka have not allowed such relaxation.

Also read: Infosys misses Q4 estimates, refrains from giving FY21 sales guidance

Infosys itself will look to bring employees very gradually to offices, Rao said.

The company revealed that a few employees across the world have tested positive for COVID-19.

"The company is in touch with them and their families. Infosys has also undertaken contact tracing measures to identify colleagues, if any, who have interacted with them," Infosys said.

”We will come back to offices gradually, starting with 5 percent

CFO Roy said that Infosys is also looking at reducing discretionary spends

”Travel is a big cost so that cost has come down. We will look at capex spends. We spent $450 million on capex last year,” Roy said.

The lockdown in India remains in effect until May 3.

Update: Infosys clarified that it will honour 35,000 offers that the company has already made. No fresh hiring will happen this year.

First Published:Apr 20, 2020 8:58 PM IST