Cognizant to lay off hundreds of employees

To revive the company’s struggling growth engine, Brian Humphries, CEO of Cognizant has send out a strong message – shape up or ship out. The immediate action plan he has made two major changes in the leadership. There is extensive restructuring process going on for pushing the growth and at the same time bringing down the costs. There will be more than hundreds of employees to be laid off those with more than eight years of experience would be targeted i.e., the middle-level employees.

As per the report, the company had 288,200 staff as of June 30, a 7% increase from 268,900 a year earlier. It had about 281,600 employees at the end of 2018, with 194,700, or 69%, in India, according to Cognizant’s annual report for 2018.

“However, as per the company, we have already onboarded several thousand students who are currently undergoing training in Cognizant Academy, and the rest will be onboarded 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,” the spokesperson said.

The company has already discontinued non-essential travel and has also taken other steps to limit its spending. Moreover, company has extended the time between giving offer letters to new employees and allocating their joining dates. With the intention of the company is looking at boosting the variable pay component of salaries, a move that will reduce costs, as part of the restructuring.