Infosys introduces onsite rotation policy for employees

After completing 15 months onsite, employees would be sounded out on their winding-down process, sources said.

BANGALORE: Infosys has introduced an onsite rotation policy for employees and set an upper limit of 18 months on the duration that employees can stay in overseas locations when they go for client-specific work.

The company declined to talk about it, but the move appears to be an effort to encourage employees by giving more of them an opportunity to work overseas.

While TCS introduced a rotation policy in 2010, Wipro did it in late 2011, with the duration set at a maximum of two years.

Rotations are becoming the norm as onsite opportunities are declining, given the slowing demand for IT and pressure to hire locals. IT employees have always regarded onsite opportunities in the US or Europe as one of their biggest perks. Companies too believe it's important for employees to be part of the client's environment, because it helps them become more engaged and develop domain- and client-specific knowledge.

Infosys' new policy was sent to some project managers and delivery managers last week, said sources familiar with the development. After completing 15 months onsite, employees would be sounded out on their winding-down process, sources said.

The policy is seen as a retention sop, especially for those at the junior level, some of whom have been unable to go onsite despite holding H-1B visas. H-1B holders can ordinarily work in the US for up to six years.

But the new policy could lead to higher costs and administrative work, since it would mean applying for more visas. "A petitioning employer has to pay $2,000 if the employer has more than 50 employees and more than 50% of those employees are on H-1B or L1 visas," said Senthil Kumar, managing attorney, Murthy Immigration Services.

Rakesh Prabhu, partner-immigration practice in ALMT Legal, however, notes that a shorter stay may mean that the employee's chances of a permanent residency in the US become lower.

All IT companies' rotation policies provide for exceptions. If a customer demands that an employee stay longer, or if the employee's manager thinks the duration should be extended, it could be done. But such instances may be extremely rare.

Infosys' latest move follows another major employee encouragement initiative. The company has made an unusual provision of Rs 130 crore for bonus payouts. In the US, the company is learnt to be giving a special bonus of $50,000 for top performers in the level 8 band (VP and above), said sources.

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