As COVID-19 almost ended, there has been another challenging situation of macroeconomic conditions which slowed down the business and a modest decline in growth.
In 2023, lots of companies especially Tech/IT and Edtech firms intended to cut jobs and announced layoffs, deferred salary hikes, and also ended work from home.
At the end of year 2023, let’s recap the 4 Biggest Moves by Companies:
Layoffs
The world’s top three companies Google, Amazon, and Microsoft were once counted among the safest places to work, but not anymore they have sacked a major number of employees.
At the start of the year 2023, Microsoft announced laying off 10,000 employees, almost 5% of its workforce, joining other tech companies that have scaled back their pandemic-era expansions. Then in mid of the year, the company announced the additional layoffs of 276 people in its home state of Washington.
Microsoft’s global headcount dropped to 215,500 people as of Sept. 30, a decline of more than 16,000 from its peak of 232,000 at the end of the 2022 calendar year. The company said in a regulatory that the layoffs were a response to “macroeconomic conditions and changing customer priorities.”
In 2023, E-commerce giant Amazon saw massive layoffs, the company laid off around to 18,000 employees since January including communications staff in its Studios, Video, and Music divisions last month.
Early this year, Amazon saw the largest job cuts in its history when it laid off 18,000 workers in January. Post this company sacked 9000 people affected over 27,000 employees in this year.
Recently in Oct this year, Google has laid off around 40 employees from its Google News division. This is the third time the company has announced job cuts in 2023. in January 2023, Tech Giant Google announced a massive layoff of 12,000 jobs.
Most companies attributed organizational restructuring and cost-cutting to their decision.
End of Work from Home
Another big move that Tech companies took included ending working from Home and calling their employees to Work From the Office.
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has ended the hybrid work policy and asked its employees to work from the office 5 days a week from October 1, 2023 onwards. Those employees who don’t comply with the rules will face disciplinary action.
After TCS, Infosys, HCLTech, and Wipro have asked their employees to come to the office and work at least three days a week.
Salary Hikes in the IT Industry in India
India’s top IT companies including Infosys, Wipro, and HCLTech have delayed the salary hikes of their employees in 2023.
Also Watch, HR Tech Trends for 2024, Click Here
Accenture said it will not hike salaries for Indian and Sri Lankan employees for fiscal year 2023. The company is also postponing promotions across senior management until June 2024.
In an email sent out by Ajay Vij, Country, Managing Director, Accenture in India said, “Employees will get individual annual performance bonuses where applicable although they will be significantly lower than the previous year due to the company’s performance setback.”
“Given the context of our performance, we will not be providing any stay-at-level (base pay) increases this year except where legally mandated or committed in a few critical skill areas,” he added.
Narayana Murthy: Work three shifts a day, ’70 hours work week’, & start English medium schools
Recently, Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy said, “The maximum percentage of local people that you can employ in an industry like software services is about 60%.”
“So, it means that the rest of the talent will inevitably come from other states in India and maybe a small percentage from developed countries”, he said.
“The first task of a good public governance system for Bengaluru to become even stronger is to provide total freedom to start English medium schools”, he added.
He further noted, “The governments needed to complete infrastructure projects on priority and that work in the industry should be done in three shifts instead of one. In other nations that have high aspirations, people work two shifts.”
“People in those infrastructure industries must work three shifts, they should not work just one shift. Come at 11 am and then go at 5 pm. At least on the Electronic City road, that is what I see, I may be completely wrong,” he emphasized.
He also suggested when the government provides subsidies it should ensure that the receiver provides something in return for the betterment of the society. “If you are providing free electricity, tell them we want to see the percentage of attendance in schools going up by say 20%…”
Narayana Murthy has suggested that Indian youngsters should work 70 hours a week.
Narayana Murthy stated, “If we want to compete with the fastest growing countries like China and Japan, we need to boost up our work productivity.”
“At the moment, India’s work productivity is very low. The government also must reduce the time it takes for decision-making and curb corruption in bureaucracy”, Narayana Murthy added
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