Infosys Technologies plans to continue the rollout of its iRace program under which the company’s staff are required to wait longer for their promotions so that only the professionals with proven managerial skills can lead project teams. The new HR initiative — iRACE (Infosys Role and Career) — was introduced by the company last year. Some employees, who the company says form 5% of the total workforce, had resisted the initiative.

“There is demoralisation in the team if you allow a manager to get promoted before his or her time,” Nandita Gurjar, senior vice president and group head, human resources, Infosys, said. “Because he or she may not be mature enough to deal with human issues. We have to make sure right decisions are taken.”

“Our structures are in place and our hiring plan, job description and performance management is connected to iRACE,” she said. “It is a very lean and mean structure.”

The platform defines roles, competencies and proficiency requirements while linking career movement to performance and business focus.

However, an Infosys employee said many employees are not happy and apprehensive about the programme. “Some 25% of the employees are against it and 15% are not happy about it,” said the employee who did not wish to be quoted.

He said there were five bands of assessment — from A to E — earlier which have now been increased to eight — 1 to 8. There is a change in designation as well. For example, a project manager with 3.5 years of experience has been renamed as technical lead and he or she has to work for two more years to become a project manager.