Infosys’ Sikka promotes 5,000 employees to retain them

In his first week as Infosys’ new CEO, Vishal Sikka has approved around 5,000 promotions to help retain key staff and improve employee morale at the software company. Infosys BSE -0.87 % has promoted employees across sales, delivery and business enabling functions, and across geographies, ET learns.

“We announced quarterly promotions in February 2014 to enable our employees to uncover and accelerate opportunities for career growth,” said a company spokeswoman. “We have promoted close to 10,000 employees over the past two quarters.”

After this latest round of promotions, Infosys has promoted 15,000 employees since the start of the year. The move by Sikka is part of his outreach to employees. Immediately after taking over as chief executive, the former SAP board member visited the company’s Mysore campus and spent time with trainees.

Founder Narayana Murthy, when he returned in his second stint in 2013 to steer Infosys after years of underperformance, too announced wage hikes within days of taking over. “Vishal is very clear in his thinking. His priority is to boost morale and retain talent at the company,” said Dave Gardner, founder of Gardner and Associates Consulting, a Californiabased advisory firm.

Further, Sikka along with COO UB Pravin Rao initiated an employee engagement exercise called Murmurations under which over 160,000 staff were asked to share innovative ideas with the top boss.

Gardner believes these measures will help the company bring down high attrition rates. During the first quarter ended June 30, Infosys reported an attrition rate of 19.5%.