Infosys Technologies plans to continue with its iRACE programme

Date: 04-Feb-2010

BANGALORE: Infosys Technologies plans to continue with its iRACE programme under which the company’s staff are required to wait longer for their promotions, so that only professionals with proven managerial skills can lead project teams.

The new HR initiative — iRACE (Infosys Role and Career) — was introduced by the company last year. Some employees, who the company says form 5% of the total workforce, had resisted it.

“There is demoralisation in the team if you allow a manager to get promoted before his or her time,” Nandita Gurjar, senior vice-president and group head, human resources, Infosys, said. “Because he or she may not be mature enough to deal with human issues. We have to make sure right decisions are taken.”

“Our structures are in place and our hiring plan, job description and performance management are connected to iRACE,” she said. “It is a very lean structure.”

The platform defines roles, competencies and proficiency requirements while linking career movement to performance and business focus.

However, an Infosys employee said many employees are not happy and apprehensive about the programme. “Some 25% of the employees are against it and 15% are not happy about it,” said the employee requesting anonymity. He said that earlier there were five bands of assessment — from A to E — which have now been increased to eight (1 to 8). There is a change in designation as well. For example, a project manager with three-and-a-half years of experience has been renamed as technical lead and he or she has to work for two more years to become a project manager.

He said that though employees with five years of experience will remain as project managers, there are other criteria and a promotion will be given based on the previous appraisals and one has to show consistent performance.

“This programme will fuel attrition rates,” said another employee. Ms Gurjar said the company has created career lattices and ladders which will be announced to employees in April. There are 24 career streams in iRACE, which will enable employees to move from one stream to another with more transparency.

She said that companies in the IT industry have a tendency to promote people before time, but this initiative will not stop fast promotion of performers. Infosys said employees will get impacted if they do not meet the eligibility or performance or don’t have enough experience.

Some employees said a fresher will take more than the current 2-3 years to become a programme analyst with the implementation of this initiative.

Another person familiar with the development said there are many delivery position managers who have been promoted to the associate vice-president level, though they weren’t competent enough for the job.

Experts such as Amit Bansal, chief executive at training company PurpleLeap, said the competency level of employees are based on their knowledge, skills and aptitude in such programmes.

He said that even if employees are getting good appraisals, it will not give them the licence to reach to the next level unless they have the required competency. “Such programmes are already present in matured Indian companies which have been there for 30-40 years and these programmes are evolving now in the IT sector which is quite young,” he said.

Over 6,500 Infoscions contributed to the analysis, planning and development efforts of iRACE. Infosys rivals such as TCS and Wipro have also implemented similar programmes at the junior level.

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