Joining industry peers, Cognizant moves to nine-hour workday model
Moving into a 9-hour workday model
Source | www.thehindubusinessline.com | TE Raja Simhan
In a bid to reduce employee utilisation, Cognizant Technology Solutions will move its India-based workforce on to a 9-hour workday from the present 8-hour.
To be effective from February 15, this will bring it on par with its industry peers like Tata Consultancy Services. “It has also enhanced the number of paid leaves annually,” said an official of the Nasdaq-listed IT company that has over 75 per cent of its 2.90 lakh employees working in India.
Cognizant’s offshore utilisation excluding trainees increased to 87 per cent in December 2020 quarter as against 85 per cent in the September quarter and 80 per cent in the June quarter. The onsite utilisation has been just over 90 per cent.
Tactical change
On managing utilisation, Cognizant’s CEO Brian Humphries told analysts, “We are doing some tactical things internally. We have moved our India-based workforce onto a nine-hour workday, which is in line with industry practice. This will result in a reduction of utilisation in India, in theory, in the next quarter or so by one to two points. But we will continue to look at utilisation and track it and understand how these dynamics play in.”
