india

Updated: Dec 26, 2013 11:22 IST

A proposal by IT major Infosys to install a software that will enable the company to track the actual time spent by employees on their computers is fanning massive resentment among middle-level and junior employees of India’s second-largest IT services company.

Another initiative, which seeks to cap the duration of assignments at offshore locations such as the US to 18 months is adding to the employee dissatisfaction.

The policy on foreign postings has already been implemented and the installation of the software to “police employees’ work habits” is expected to begin any time soon, following the success of a pilot project.

These new HR policies come merely six months after NR Narayana Murthy came back from his retirement to take charge as executive chairman of Infosys.

His son Rohan Murty (who spells his surname without the ‘h’) is assisting him as an executive assistant and is closely involved with all decisions taken by the chairman’s office.

“Earlier they wanted to make us stay in office for nine hours. Now, they want to measure how much time we spend on computers. These policies are completely out of sync with the times,” said a senior executive at the company.

Infosys, which had, till a few years ago, regularly featured at or near the top of lists of “best companies to work in” has, in recent times, been grappling with a high attrition rate. Employees who spoke on condition of anonymity blamed “unfriendly HR policies” for this.

The attrition rate at Infosys, at 17.3%, is slightly above the industry average of 14-15%. Three search firms HT spoke to said the number of Infosysemployees looking for jobs has risen over the last six months.

“We do not comment on matters pertaining to our internal organisation,” theInfosys spokesperson said in response to an email on the subject from HT.

“I stay with my family in the US…my kids are studying in a school and my wife has a job here. Suddenly, I am told about this onsite policy…it is very difficult to shift base. How can I take my wife and kids back at such short notice?” asked an Infosys employee on conditions of anonymity.