Cognizant fires 200 senior employees for tech-savvy replacements

In a move that is creating ripples across the IT & ITES industry, Cognizant has let go of approximately 200 senior employees in a bid to infuse new talent with relevant skills for today’s digital economy. Last year, Cognizant had offered voluntary retirement schemes to 400 employees. With this years involuntary terminations, however, the organization seems to have taken cognizance of what industry leaders have been saying for some time now, that the digital economy is here and with it, new skills are required for businesses to stay relevant.
“As part of our ongoing workforce management strategy, we ensure we have the right employee skill sets necessary to meet client needs and achieve our business goals. This process has resulted in changes, including some employees transitioning out of the company. We continue to enhance our capabilities and hire for roles across all our practice areas in the company. Details of severance or any other conditions of employment are confidential,” the company said.
With this move, Cognizant has become the first high-profile organization to officially acknowledge the changing industry needs. The age of experience-based career progressions are over, the age of upskilling has officially arrived.
As per NASSCOM, India will have a shortfall of close to 100,000 professionals with digital economy skills by end of 2018. Several leading companies across IT, BFSI, Healthcare etc have ramped up hiring in skill areas such as Machine Learning, Data Science, Analytics, AI, Deep Learning, Cloud Computing etc.