Vault’s Verdict

The last time we checked in on Infosys, in our 2015 survey, employees were cautiously optimistic about the appointment of a new CEO—Vishal Sikka—who had arrived with  a bold new vision for the consulting arm. One year on, as is evident in the selection of quotes below, that sense of optimism remains, along with a  higher sense of satisfaction with life at the firm in general.

In particular, Infosys employees in the APAC region seem to enjoy the firm's reach and stability, as both provide the foundation to deliver on the pivot it has made into full-service solutions. With an increasing ability to be able to work within the region (as opposed to simply fulfilling technical projects for work sold elsewhere), Infosys' consultants are a group that we will be watching with interest in the next couple of years as the APAC consulting market continues to mature. 

Firm Culture

• "Lots of client and travel opportunities. The consulting practice is still small but piggybacks on a very stable company with lots of opportunities."

• "It's a growing firm in growing business. If you are OK with working in different cities regularly, it's a good choice."

• "We truly work with experienced people. We truly value each individual's performance with no political games attached. We are very client focused, always striving to deliver value to our clients. We are not commercially aggressive, but believe that by delivering value to our clients we will be recognized as the best in our field."

• "Infosys Consulting offers variety in terms of the work involved, the clients and travel. It is very flexible and encourages a collaborative culture, where consultants share best practices and learnings, and work together on pursuits and client engagements, often across practice boundaries and geo boundaries."

• "We do not task 24 year olds to do bulk of our client work—we deploy people with real experiences and hard skills."

Quality of Life

• "Firm supports mobile work, so there is flexibility from that perspective (e.g. working out of client sites, airport lounges etc.) Worst is the amount of admin/overhead (i.e. revenue assurance, invoicing etc), which takes up a lot of time to ensure revenue is transferred correctly to IC. Additionally, the firm has two competing priorities of utilisation and building/maturing services, and this is done with the same/existing workforce without any relief, which typically results in working more than 40 hours a week to stay on top of things."

• "Being in a smaller region, QoL in IC is very good. I can understand however where some people, in larger cities would struggle."

• "Worst: Very poor work-life balance at India. Teams onsite in other countries do not respect and observe working hours and expect teams offshore to be available as per their convenience. That could be improved, especially in consulting. Best: Work from home policy is very useful to ensure quality of life improves."

• "Great flexibility in terms of travel and working from home. It is easy to take time off provided you provide suitable notice to your manager and client stakeholders."

• "There have been experiences in current project when, due to lack of planning and at times lack of resource planning, there has been lot of re-work, leading to stretching hours. Multiple roles to be played, additional work pressure, etc. which could have been avoided if the amount of effort calculated against resourcing has been done."

• "People are nice and pleasant, and say the right things, but long hours seem to be normal, and too many red flags are raised before action is taken to hire additional headcount."

Career Development

• "Best: Promotion process is pragmatic and recognises outstanding achievers that can be considered for promotion even if they haven't executed their current role for more than two years. Worst: Gender diversity is quite poor."

• "More training opportunities in the areas of project management, analytics, presentation skills, business case development have to be provided. International assignments, participation in industry seminars should be encouraged."

• "Best: People are valued for their own performance. There is no formal ranking of employees which takes away a lot of the political games around performance appraisals. Worst: Promotion opportunities are very limited and it seems that policies are not aligned across the globe."

• "Every consultant gets a counsellor who works very closely in guiding, mentoring and coaching. Whilst giving challenging projects with top clients, one also gets to work on firm activities such as POCs, RFPs, etc. Without a formal hierarchy and with a flat structure, consultants get all the freedom to do everything they can imagine as long as it is in the interest of the client, firm and people. The firm backs [an] individual's abilities with promise and does everything it can to meet those promises."

• "Best aspect: If you are lucky you will get a project in your chosen domain and area and flourish. Worst Aspect: Getting a project is a challenge."

• "Though the outlook for career development is looking promising, there are problems such as operational silos with respect to geography in terms of training and promotion."

Compensation

• "Compensation is not as per industry standards and there is too much of a variable component which is not directly in one's control. Variable component should be removed for offsite and non-client-facing people."

• "Consultant level salary compensation not on par with other consulting firms or industry companies in HK. Pay equality needs to be reviewed."

• "Best: Salary and salary progression are good. Worst: Other than medical coverage, no other real perks offered."

• "Training policy allocates funds that can be used every financial year for education and training."

• "Salary progression is poor based on the fact that appraisal cycles move as per organization's discretion. Another point that needs to be improved is the fact that dispersion of salary revision is at company's discretion and there is no platform to oppose it for employees."

• "Full salary parity across genders in Australia."

Outlook

• "The strength of Infosys Consulting is the huge business the parent company has with almost all the big companies. Even the group CEO calls Infosys Consulting the tip of the spear. The large offshore (India) pool of consultants can be used for faster delivery while reducing cost. The weakness is that we are not in a position to leverage this position. Consultants do not get trained regularly. Especially in India the team is highly demotivated. The leadership in US seems to be out of touch of getting big deals. US team seems to be not keen in involving India team."

• "It is unclear what our strategy is going forward, and thus makes it difficult when speaking with key leadership in clients who frequently ask given their preference for strategic partnership with an advisory/consulting firm. The lack of innovation, industry/functional solutions, and points-of-view, whitepapers, etc. makes it difficult to differentiate ourselves form our competition."

• "Differentiation in monetary benefits, promotions etc. are demotivating. No clarity on growth plans, no clear communications about compensations, bonuses etc. Overall not a fair appreciation for the people who have worked hard throughout the year. No clarity on criteria on the deserving people for good rating and promotions."

• "Since Mr. Sikka has taken over, I think the company has significantly improved in its thought process, culture etc. I think in time the company and its culture will change. There is however a lot of cultural change that is still required."

• "Leaders are doing a great job transforming us into a strategy partner while retaining traditional implementation business."

Hiring Process

• "There is no one ideal candidate. We have diverse needs for various types of resources from the technical to the strategic. Other than being enthusiastic, confident and able to articulate a point of view in a concise manner, there is not a single characteristic set for an ideal candidate."

• "Candidates should be adaptable and presentable.'

• "Process: In general we can move very fast. From time of receipt of a resume we can make a decision within a week, accounting for two or three interviews. Ideal candidate has vast experience in his/her field, is a team player, takes initiative and has a drive to succeed/deliver."

Interview Tips and Questions

• "The interview case/questions are typically based on industry knowledge as Infosys Consulting typically recruits candidates with experience in Industries such as manufacturing, energy, etc."

• "There is no 'fixed' standard set of questions used; we individually use our own experience and approach to interview candidates."

• "Behavioural and team questions; scenarios based on capability being recruited for."

• "What was your biggest professional mistake and how did you deal with it?"