No variable pay for TCS campus hires in training

Close to 1,500 trainees who will join India’s largest information technology services provider, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), by the end of September, will not be eligible for variable pay till they complete their six-month training period.

Campus hires, till date, got an annual package of around Rs 3.2 lakh (around Rs 26,670 per month) of which Rs 60,000 (or Rs 5,000 per month) comprised the variable component. However, the trainees who join TCS now will not get this component for the first six months.

“We took this decision from a productivity point of view. While this will result in cost savings, it is more of a mindset change,” said Ajoy Mukherjee, Vice President and Head of Global Human Resources.

TCS gave offer letters to 24,885 students. Of this, 18,000-19,000 are expected to join the company in batches by the end of the current financial year. The number of trainees joining will depend on the training capacity of the organisation and the business demand environment. The company also said its lateral (experienced hands) hiring would be tightly controlled.

The change in salary structure, however, will not be applicable to the 250 trainees being hired by TCS for its Cincinnati centre. “The reason being, there is no variable pay component applicable in the US. We have made campus offers to 160 students, of which 120 have joined the centre,” added Mukherjee.

For the next financial year (FY2011), the company will visit campuses only in January 2011. However, Mukherjee wouldn’t give any details on the number the company was looking to hire for FY2011.

TCS, said Mukherjee, will continue with its stand of no increments for this financial year. “While the bad news this year is that there will be no increments, we will be promoting over 9,000 employees, which was held over last year,” he said.