Infosys has reportedly given out-of-turn promotions to 5,000 employees in a bid to boost workforce morale. The promotions come at a time when Infosys is in the middle of its biggest leadership transition in its history. On August 1, former SAP AG executive Vishal Sikka took charge as the first non-founder CEO at the company.

The move is reminiscent of mid-year salary hike in 2013, which coincided with co-founder Narayana Murthy's return as executive chairman to Infosys board. (Read the full story here)

The promotions are aimed at controlling a record attrition at Infosys, analysts say. India's second largest outsourcer had reported an annualized attrition rate of 19.5 per cent for the quarter ended June 30. In simple terms, one in five employees left Infosys in the one-year period.

Analysts have blamed a series of senior management exits, lower salary hikes and concerns over career growth prospects for the rising attrition at Infosys.

Infosys announced 6-7 per cent salary hikes for offshore employees effective April 1, lower than TCS' wage hike of 10 per cent for India-based employees. On Wednesday, US-based Cognizant matched TCS and announced a 10 per cent increment for its offshore employees. (Read: Why Cognizant announced 10 per cent hike for employees)

Market analyst Ambareesh Baliga told NDTV that wage hikes will have a marginal impact on employee costs. The latest round of promotions will impact nearly 3 per cent employees. Infosys had 161,284 employees as on June 30, 2014.

In July, Infosys chief operating officer UB Pravin Rao had told NDTV, "Employee attrition rates are worrisome and we are implementing various initiatives to retain good talent."

Infosys' annualized attrition rate at the end of the March quarter of this year was 18.7 per cent. A year earlier, in the June 2013 quarter, the attrition rate was 16.9 per cent.

Infosys shares closed 0.70 per cent lower at Rs 3,482.65 on the NSE and underperformed the IT sub-index on the NSE, which closed 0.24 per cent lower.