Infosys is doubling pay packages for employees who successfully complete its new bridge programmes. These are programmes that help staff to shift from their existing job to one that demands higher skills.
The company expects this initiative will also reduce attrition at junior levels — the rate has been high in recent times at over 20% — and give young employees more growth options.
Indian IT firms, including TCS and Wipro, are coming up with novel methods to skill employees in fields like consulting, automation, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, and to make them stay for longer durations.
The programme, aimed to move employees to the consulting side of the business, includes a test and a three-month curriculum. Post that, the employee has to spend six months interning in a consulting project, and upon completion, the role changes and the new salary structure kicks in.
“We are focused on creating a flexible internal market place for our talent to grow, instead of them leaving to join, say, an MBA course. These programmes provide people with alternative career growth opportunities,” Krish Shankar, head of human resources at Infosys stated.
Infosys said that employees who go through the programmes have seen their salary rise by 80-120%. Some 400 people have been trained in these programmes till date.