Nearly 70% of TCS employees return to office after variable pay is linked to attendance

Milind Lakkad, CHRO, TCS

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Chief HR Officer Milind Lakkad, on July 11, said that almost 70 percent of the IT services giant’s employees are back in office following the new policy of linking variable pay to attendance.

He added that this measure is a temporary move and needs to be seen that way.

In April 2024, TCS had linked its quarterly variable payout to employees with their attendance in the office. Those with less than 60 percent attendance won’t be eligible for the quarterly bonus.

This policy update came months after the IT services giant mandated employees to work from the office five days a week.

The new policy required employees to have a minimum of 85 percent attendance in the office to receive full quarterly variable pay.

Also, consistent non-compliance of this could lead to disciplinary actions being taken.

Employees with 75-85 percent work from office attendance will receive 75 percent of their variable pay while those with 60-75 percent attendance will only get 50 percent of their variable pay.

Responding to a question on its policy of linking attendance in the office to variable pay, at the company’s Q1FY25 earnings conference, Lakkad said that there are implications for people not coming to the office. However, the company didn’t disclose the quantum of implications that would bring.

“Today almost 70% of our employees are back in the office. I am not too much worried about the quantum or number of people not coming to the office and getting affected by this. This number is increasing every week I would say,” he said.

Lakkad added, “I am not worried about that, people are realising the value of coming to office. Some of them are coming for the first time because they had joined during the pandemic. Everybody has to look at it positively. These aspects are temporary in nature from our standpoint and need to be looked at from that angle by everyone.”

TCS had earlier shared that almost 40 percent of its current workforce had joined the company during the Covid pandemic years and hadn’t worked from the office ever.

TCS reported a 9 percent year-on-year increase in net profit at Rs 12,040 crore for the quarter. Its revenue from operations rose 5.4 percent to Rs 62,613 crore.

Also read: TCS headcount up 5,452 in Q1, reverses decline of 3 quarters