Job Cuts, No Increments: Read Cognizant CEO's Letter to Employees!

In a letter sent to employees, Cognizant CEO Brian Humphries has written about jobs cuts, delay in increments and more under the company's 'Fit-for-Growth' plan. Though he did not speak about a specific geographic location, India will anyhow face a massive blow as it accounts for Cognizant's 70% headcount.

Here are the key excerpts from the letter:

The refinement of our strategic posture also highlights a subset of our portfolio that's not in line with our company's strategic vision, and therefore an area that it makes sense to exit. Within Digital Operations, we have a Content Operation Business that offers a wide range of business process services to clients in all industries. Some of these projects involve ensuring proper brand and business experiences. But within one subset of Content Operations. our work is largely focused on determining whether certain content violates client standards, and this work can involve objectable materials. We have determined that this subset of work is not in line with the company's strategic vision. Exiting this subset will affect approximately 6,000 roles and impact our financial performance in the coming year. In the months ahead, we will work with our partners to explore ways to transition the work and the roles the alternative vendors, thereby reducing the impact on our valued associates.

In our people-intensive business, cost reduction always involves difficult choices. But with an eye to the long-term health of the company, we have made the decision to remove approximately 10000 to 12000 mid-to-senior level associates from their current roles in the coming quarters.

In addition, we are making changes to the Manager-plus annual salary divisions and promotions process. We are refining the process not to simply contain costs but to drive greater career mobility, just-in-time promotions, and a more meritocratic culture. Therefore for this population we are deferring all decisions on salary increases and promotions until next year.