HISTORY

 Incorporated on 2nd July, 1981.

 Mainly overseas clientele;

 1st client: Reebok.

 Developed proprietary banking software,

Finacle.
 Revenues Rs. 10.3 mn (1985) to Rs. 19.1 mn
(1987) to Rs. 25.4 mn (1989)
 Started with on-site services.

 1991: Liberalization of Indian Economy.

 IPO in 1993.
 1st Indian company to implement ESOP (1994)

 Issued 24,000,000 warrants to employees at

Rs.0.50 each, entitled the holder to apply for one
equity share.

 Another ESOP in 1999, issued 26,400,000 equity

shares to the employees.

 1st Indian company to value its human resource

at Rs. 2785.5 million.

 Discontinued with ESOP in 2003 due to

accounting problem
 INFOSYS’s HR PRACTICES
 Maintained the small company culture.

 Provided employees with world class facilities for

training and working, such as;
-- Multi-cuisine courts
-- Swimming pools, a gymnasium
-- A golf course etc.

 Initially recruited employees from engineering colleges

 Policy of recruiting people with analytical skills and

provided them with specific training

 To succeed it was necessary to recruit, train and retain

employees.
INFOSYS’s HR PRACTICES
(Contd)
 Emphasized on individual growth along with
organizational growth.

 Identified the structural requirements of

people at different levels and created a
demand for the roles.

 Adopted a role-based structure, ensuring

employee career growth.

 Role of the employees was defined.

 Performance-appraisal and career

progression were carried out according to
 Training
 Fresher training courses

 Training on new processes as well

 High level managers were trained for
management development / leadership
development program.
 High cost incurred (6.7 bn in 2005- 06)
 Training covered:
 Software development
 Managerial skills
 Soft skills
 Leadership Skills

 In house education & research department

 New Recruits Training Training Employees
14.5 week technical training Competency considered
individual performance, feedback
from clients
Expenditure of Rs. 2 lakhs Trained in technical training,
/year/new entrant managerial & skills training,
domain training & quality
processes training.
Trained at Global Education Project specific training courses
Centre conducted by E&R department
Training covered: culture & value For software engineers
system, technical and managerialincluded :configuration
skills, soft skills,etc. management and defect
prevention.
Training in technology courses Regular quality process training
like C++, UNIX, HTML,etc.
Feedback mechanism to ensure Other training programs: soft
continuous improvement in skills, communication, personal
training program. effectiveness

Employees had autonomy to

choose area of training
Infosys Leadership
Institute
Set up in 2001

Objectives :
 Grooming Executives
 Ensuring smooth transition into next
generation
 To study and develop different leadership
styles

How ILI was established ??

Infosys did a study of 8 corporate training
models(including that of G.E, Philips,etc.)
before establishing ILI
 Infosys Leadership
Institute
Process followed at ILI
(Contd…)
 Identified 400 potential leader (Performance basis)
 Put through a 3 year training program
 Training given on topics such as organizational
change, transformational leadership, etc.

Something more…..
 100 faculty members (70% doctorate)
 Company leaders shared experience with the
candidates
 Infosys Leadership
Institute
 Identified leadership competencies on
(Contd…)
four dimensions: Work, People,
Technology, Business

 Followed a 9 pillar model for leadership

development

 These were 360 degree feedback,

developmental assignments, Infosys
culture workshop, etc.
 Performance Appraisal
 Evaluation of personal skills like: their
learning and analytical ability, etc.

 Different criteria for evaluation for evaluation

like: timeliness, customer satisfaction,
business potential, etc.

 These criteria were measured on a scale of 1

to 5.

 The appraisal data was used to determine

the training needs and other developmental
interventions of the employees.
 Performance Appraisal

(Contd)
 2003: A New Model Introduced: Incentives
were paid on the basis of three tiers of
performance:
 overall corporate performance,
 unit performance and,
 performance of the concerned employee.

 Mid- 2006: Deferred Compensation Scheme:

To create a compensation pool and reward
the employees out of that based on their
performance.
 The Culture
 Infosys tried to preserve the attributes of the small company
culture: worked in small groups, managers played the role of
mentors to guide their team members.

 An environment of mutual learning was strongly encouraged.

 Better performers were given higher responsibilities and quick

promotions to provide them rapid career progression
opportunities.

 ‘Milestone’: A program to help employees progress faster.

Employees at each level were coached by their superiors
about the demands and expectations from their positions.
 Middle level managers were encouraged to
spend sufficient time on meetings,
administration, etc. to help them become better
leaders.

 High level managers were taught the importance

of nurturing the teams.

 Constant communication between the

employees and the top management. Eg:
 e-mail sent by M.D to all employees on the
previous month’s events in the company.
 Employee queries were addressed by the top
management of the company regularly(quarterly).
 Informal group meetings called ‘Brown Bag
Lunches’ were carried out from time to time.

 Open Door Policy was encouraged wherein

employees could discuss any company related
issues with their senior management.

 Managers’ cubicles were placed close to those of

employees to facilitate ‘Free Exchange of
Information’.

 2005: Work-Life Balance program called ‘Ontime’

introduced: included workshops and sessions on
stress and anger management.

 Internal employee survey called ‘Litmus’ was

conducted to know the expectations of employees
from the company.
Recruitment
 Focus on recruiting candidates who display:
 High degree of learnability
 Professional competence and academic excellence
 Other qualities- analytical ability, teamwork.

 Sources of recruitment were external sources:

 Campus interviews
 Advertisements in newspapers
 Application received
Selection Process
STEPS CRITERIA
Initial Screening Academic and Experience
shortlisted

Written Test Arithmetic reasoning, analytical

above cut- thinking, English language skills
off marks
Communication and
Interview (Panel Interview) presentation skills, flexibility and
aspiration levels

Selected If not Selected

(re-apply after 9
months)
 Securing a position is competitive: Last year,
1.3 million applicants applied for full-time
position but only 1% were hired.

 Used RMS developed by Blue Shift.

 Recruited Experienced personnel for special

positions.

 Looking at increasing local hiring at various

geographies, where they have presence.
Points worth discussion…
 Maintenance of small company culture and
simplicity

 Diverse cultures arising due to multiple

departments

 Lack of personal touch and challenges

 Work-life imbalance due to heavy workload

 Employee retention without increasing the wage

bill
 Thank You
 Hubrit D.S.
 Mikky Madhogaria
 Nitin Arora
 Rajinder Budhiraja
 Sheena Mathur
 Vivek Luthra