Early on Thursday, international media reported about a mail that IBM had sent to employees, saying those in the global technology services (GTS) division would not receive a salary increment this year. However, the mail also said people "who have high-demand skills" would receive an increment .
Sources within IBM India indicated that "high-demand skills" refers, among others, to employees in India . The sources said that the performance assessment exercise had been completed and increments were expected across the organization in India next month. IBM follows a July-June cycle. "For the best performers, the increment may be in double digits ," one source said.
IBM does not break up its headcount by geography, but it is estimated that the company employs over 1.3 lakh people in India. The company has been an aggressive hirer in India for several years. With several Indian IT companies- the one prominent exception beingInfosys Technologies announcing salary increaments earlier this year, it may be difficult for IBM not to follow suit.
In an email to employees, Bob Zapfel, general manager in IBM's global technology services, North America, said, "To balance our ability to remain competitive with the need to invest in people who have high-demand skills, there will not be a broad-based salary program in GTS in 2012. Instead, we will target the 2012 investment to skill groups or focus areas as identified by each GTS line of business, based on local market needs...Our objective is to ensure a competitive labor cost structure while moving aggressively into areas that are strategic to our clients and require innovative solutions."
GTS is a services division within IBM that helps clients to plan, implement and manage its IT infrastructure.
The news about the salary freeze had Big Blue employees venting their anger on Alliance@IBM website, the union representing Big Blue workers. The anger was more so because it had recently asked its employees in the US to sign up for a voluntary retirement programme.
The website has employees criticising IBM for shipping jobs to low-cost destinations like India and Brazil. Alliance@IBM estimates that the US workforce has reduced to 94,000 in 2012, from 133,789 in 2005. Globally, the company employs 4.5 lakh people.
Edited By Cen Fox Post Team
