Digital skills to decide pay hikes at Infosys

Infosys has kicked off a talent plan that offers incentives and wage hikes
to more than 25,000 midlevel executives  slightly more than a tenth of its workforce  who gain skills in newer digital areas, as the
software exporter looks to harness their domain expertise in legacy businesses
to quicken growth in digital.

Infosys and other IT services firms have been struggling with flat or
declining business in traditional services, which contribute nearly two-thirds
to their revenue. The legacy business also has more expensive employees. The
software services companies are training these employees in newer digital
businesses, which is growing in the higher double digits.

“We have created comprehensive learning pathways for the mid-level managers.
We have created something called digital tags and have linked incentives with
them. While there are quarterly skill incentives, there is another pay growth
on better billing (once they become experts in digital technology),” Krishnamurthy
Shankar, global head of HR at Infosys, told to Media.

In the newer digital and agile projects, mid-level managers need to work
together with clients to solve a business decision, as opposed to traditional
services where they largely coordinated with clients and programmers. “When we
looked at it (up skilling the mid-level employees), we came up with four things
that are areas where we will ensure there is investment in them. So,
specialisation in digital is the first area and we have identified 36 skills,”
said Shankar.

The second important area for up skilling is expertise in process areas such
as becoming an agile coach, while the third is becoming a specialist in their
own service lines. The fourth core part is becoming a consultant, Shankar said.

Analysts said the up skilling of midlevel managers is becoming more relevant
because companies such as Infosys are forced to take a consultative approach.