Infosys has put in place a new incentive structure called iCount as part of its performance appraisal system for employees that seeks to disproportionately reward individual performers on the basis of specific targets, an overhaul that comes months after India’s second-largest software exporter gave up the so-called bell curve assessment tool. As part of iCount, employees will be offered feedback and subjected to reviews throughout the year rather than just an annual appraisal. An Infosys spokeswoman said the company had leveraged “design thinking” to enable the changes as part of chief executive Vishal Sikka’s broader “new and renew” strategy. “Infosys has changed the way performance management is done, with higher focus on individual performance rather than relative performance. We have moved away from forced ranking curve and given our managers more flexibility and empowerment, while still retaining focus on maintaining a high performance culture,” she said. Infosys had in September 2015 bid adieu to the bell curve method that fits categories of performers into a certain bracket depending on whether they have met their targets. In an interview at the time, senior HR executive Richard Lobo had said that the company had scrapped the assessment tool for its 1,93,000-odd employees and moved to a system of “open ranking” from the previous system of forced ranking. ET had in April last year first reported that Infosys was planning to set up a brand new incentive structure that would disproportionately reward top individual performers, especially executives who contributed to generating more incremental revenue for the company.
