In light of the COVID-19 situation, IT firm Cognizant has announced an additional payment of 25% of the base pay for April, for employees up to the associate level, in India and the Philippines, its Chief Executive Officer Brian Humphries said in a note to employees.
This applies to more than two-thirds of the India workforce. Cognizant will review the approach monthly. The company has nearly 2,00,000 employees in India.
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Cognizant has enabled work from home (WFH) for the majority of its offshore teams to ensure employee health and safety, and to maintain continuity of service for its clients, while safeguarding their data and protecting access to their systems, Mr. Humphries said.
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The WFH measures include provisioning new laptops and encrypting desktops and moving them to associate homes, enabling the use of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device), providing additional bandwidth connectivity and air cards — all with the appropriate client permissions and security protocols, he added.
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“Our global company has a long history of operating virtually and remotely, and rallying and responding around the clock, wherever needed. As you’ve seen, India’s Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi has imposed a nationwide 21-day lockdown in an attempt to contain the spread of the coronavirus. The Philippines is under a state of national emergency. We support these and other efforts by governments across the world to “flatten the curve” and contain the spread of COVID-19,” Mr. Humphries said.
He also appreciated the employees for their contribution and said the company will be taking specific actions to reward teams and key individuals in the future.