Coronavirus has made Infosys cautious⁠⁠⁠— here's an exclusive chat with the management

• In an interview with Business Insider, Krish Shankar, Group HR Head, Infosys shares the company’s policies around Coronavirus.
• Most companies have already restricted travel to and from affected countries. Infosys too has recommended that people don’t travel to the identified countries
• But even with the global fear on the effect of Coronavirus, Shankar says it’s too early to say that it will impact business.

The Coronavirus pandemic shook stock exchanges across the world, brought tourism to a standstill and has hit businesses. In such a scenario, companies are offering work from home, restricting travel and taking all possible measures to control it from spreading.

India’s IT giant Infosys too is taking multiple steps for the same. In an interview with Business Insider, Krish Shankar, Group HR Head, Infosys shares the company’s policies around Coronavirus.

“We've always had enough policies to really take care of such contingencies. For example, we used to give nine days work from home. So now we have told any employee that if they are sick they should do work from home,” said Shankar.

Shankar expressed similar caution while speaking about the company's hiring plan. “We look at our hiring every quarter. Every quarter we see what is the demand," said Shankar.

Will it affect new deals this quarter?

Most companies have already restricted travel to and from affected countries. Infosys too has recommended that people don’t travel to the identified countries and if they have, Infosys asked them to quarantine themselves.

“We operate in many countries, so we look at the government guidelines in those countries and the WHO and we kind of follow them completely,” he said.

Infosys is present in 46 countries and has over 243,000 employees. So, Infosys is in the throes of the Coronavirus scare, from not just its own locations around the world but also its global clients who might be shutting down work.


Even with the global fear of the impact of Coronavirus, Shankar says it’s too early to say that it will impact business.

“Each of the clients that we have also have their, such contingency planning. They also have their business continuity plans, etc. All of them are pretty good at it,” said Shankar.

Some of the biggest conferences by Facebook and Google have been called off, as with the COVID 19 scare people are avoiding public places.

As community meetings and conferences go into a pause mode, the sales team could find it difficult to get more clients on board, or keep up with the current ones.

And now, there’s one thing that has changed – the client calls have gone online.

“I think there is lots of action that's happening and companies also want to expedite some things that they may be working on. And it's just that maybe meetings may get a bit delayed, maybe some face to face discussions,” he said.

Will Infosys slowdown hiring?

Earlier Infosys’ chief financial officer (CFO) Nilanjan Roy had said that the company would hire more freshers in a cost cutting move, while also realigning roles at the middle and senior level. The company wanted to cut costs by $100-150 million.

But with coronavirus casting a shadow on business prospects, will the IT major pause? “Normally what happens is the peak starts during the year. March-April onwards, the freshers also join us. That's the time when the lateral hire picks up during there. So I think it's a mix of both. I think. I wouldn't quickly say that I know hiring is going to slow down,” said Shankar.

Meanwhile, recent survey by Deloitte says that only 8% of all companies in India are going to give a 10% hike. Infosys is confident that they are not ones that are going to be shying away from increments.

“There will be a salary hike. You will see it in the next couple of weeks,” said Shankar.

See Also:
coronavirus: Latest News, Articles on coronavirus | Business Insider India