Looking at some of the HR Policies of Infosys

We are looking the HR policies of Infosys Technologies Limited in view of the Companies Vision, Philosophy. We will try and see how the policies are in line with the philosophy and would be able to achieve the Vision. The companys HR philosophy is:

Infosys HR Philosophy

(source: www.infosys.com/HCM/offerings/platform-solutions.asp)

The companys vision: o To be a globally respected corporation that provides best-of-breed business solutions, leveraging technology, delivered by best-in-class people.

The tag line: o Powered by Intellect, Driven by Values.

Policies and checking the alignment: In view of the philosophy we would analyse a few of the policies and see how they are providing the action plan in tune to the core philosophy.

1. Global Sourcing: a. Global Skill Supply Chain: Indeed Infosys is a company which has a diverse work force with people from around 25 countries employed with it. The famed Infosys Mysore training centre is known worldwide and is used to train even international recruits. I myself was having a Chinese as a roommate! This indeed gives Infosys a competitive edge over others. The people are trained not just in computer skills but in terms of attitude and also some are imparted with knowledge of the European languages and the cultural aspects well in advance so as to give it the specific edge of being able to cater to European clients in a much better manner than competitors. b. Adaptive operating model: Throughout the tenure at Infosys the focus has been on being able to take up new challenges at any time. The focus was not being an expert at only one thing and being not able to take up anything else. The people are trained to be having the attitude of taking up any challenge. So if a person is from mainframes he may be asked to work in Java. The person would be given the required knowledge on the job itself as the need be. This is done to help the employees themselves get good opportunities. Example it is possible that I with 2 years of experience in Mainframes may be eligible for onsite. But the onsite offer would be for Java guy say. So would I miss out? No, the policy is that no worthy person should lose-out. So if I am considered good enough in terms of my other abilities and I can scale up to the Java requirements, I can be eligible. 2. Process Standardisation: Having worked with Infosys for more than 2 years I can say that all process are indeed looked to be standardised to as much extent as possible and technology is used extensively to achieve this. There are stand alone internal systems which have all the procedure documented and all the exact flow of events mentioned. Examples: The leave application systems, the late night cab booking system, the appraisal system, the regular Training help system, the HR portal. There are hundreds of systems and these help ensure that the process is indeed standardised and the subjectivity is removed as much as possible. Specific example 1: An example in point is when a person would like to shift to a new location.

The rules are clear that no person can be transferred to a new location without being allocated to a project at the new location. So a person in Pune cannot come to Hyderabad and be on bench at Hyderabad. (exception maybe allowed, but are very rare) There are people called talent managers who are normally Senior PMs or HR managers who keep a record of what exactly is the current talent requirement in the projects. So a person can contact the talent manager and he would get a good idea of how feasible it is to have the transfer. Then a system is present where the manager would update the persons details, which also includes the priority. This is a common system and so gives a clear idea to everyone as to how many others are looking for transfer and what number is one in the queue.

Specific example 2 : Leave system: o The system is such that a person who is not in office (there are swipe-in/out cards to record attendance) would automatically get a system generated mail and be given a specific time. If the system is not updated in time than a leave would be automatically deducted.

Also, Infosys has evolved a Human Capital Intelligence System which looks at classifying it into Operational, Tactical and Strategic. The below diagram gives a good idea of how the business is mapped to the various HR performance parameters:

Mapping Business with HR Performance Parameters (Source:

http://www.infosys.com/HCM/white-papers/)

Bibliography
http://www.infosys.com/HCM/white-papers/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infosys http://www.infosys.com/BPO-services/human-resource-outsourcing.pdf