Will Infosys BPO layoff 600 contract workers?

The business process outsourcing (BPO) arm of Infosys Technologies, Infosys BPO, reportedly terminated the services of over 600 contract workers in a staff redeployment exercise in February.

According to the report -- which appeared in a business daily -- the workers, who were on multi-year contracts, included temporary workers, whose exact numbers are not clear.

Incidentally, Infosys BPO is also adding another 2,000 workers by the end of March, which will raise its headcount above the 20,000 mark from around 18,000 at present, according to the news story.

Though company spokesperson maintained that no employee on the direct rolls of Infosys BPO has been laid off. HR industry sources, however, confirmed the development. Infosys’ staffing needs contractors include Adecco PeopleOne, Mafoi and TeamLease.

The country's second-largest software company recently said that it is looking at acquisitions in the BPO and KPO spaces. “We are looking at back office functions where the companies perform very unique services with their own platform or intellectual property,” said Infosys MD S Gopalakrishnan. “There are opportunities in traditional BPOs as well and we are not restricted to KPOs.”

Captives in banking and financial services, manufacturing, and telecom are still considered hot property. “Our acquisition guidelines have not changed in this environment. We will acquire the strategic fit first and then growth,” said Gopalakrishnan, adding that the target company should typically have a revenue of about $300-500 million. Infosys is also looking at smaller acquisitions in the range of $100-200 million.

“There is always more risk attached to the integration of a larger entity. However, if something smaller or bigger comes along we will definitely look at it,” said Gopalakrishnan.

As the company continues to focus on geographically non-English speaking countries such as France, Germany and Japan, it is not averse to acquisitions in other locations. “These are not mutually exclusive with the services offered by the company. If there is an opportunity to acquire a consulting company in the US, we will look at it,” Gopalakrishnan said.

Indiatimes

Job losses would be temporary, says Montek Ahluwalia

The government on Friday said the current economic situation could lead to some job losses, but these would only be temporary with economy poised to grow at seven per cent this fiscal.

"Certainly in sectors that are badly affected, if we are not able to completely counter the effect of recession, there may be some job losses. We hope they will be temporary," Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia told reporters while briefing on the stimulus package.

He said the idea behind this package is to ensure that economy does not slow down too much.

Ahluwalia said the economy is expected to grow at seven per cent this fiscal and that will be a good performance.

"So, when I say that this package will hopefully generate a growth rate of seven per cent, that is a growth rate that is certainly consistent with the total number of jobs in the economy increasing," he said.

The Planning Commission Deputy Chairman, however, said it is not possible to completely counter the impact of an external slowdown.

"But with this package what we are doing is minimising the pain on that score," he added.

Source: Agencies