IT major Infosys is undertaking a major restructuring at the higher levels in order to flatten the organization and make decision-making faster, as per a media report.

As part of this process, the company will trim its workforce at job level (JL) 7 and above, those in the ranks of delivery managers, industry principal (the JL7 equivalent for consulting roles), AVPs, VPs, and SVPs.

The effort is to break down a five-tiered structure into two. As per reports, Infosys CEO Salil Parekh is said to have reviewed each layer closely to understand the overlaps in these layers. The idea is to fix greater responsibility and accountability on senior executives who are not billable resources but are people managers. The initiative will include sales, delivery, BPO, and support services, sources said.

In the existing reporting structure in a vertical, delivery managers report to senior delivery managers who then report to a delivery head. The delivery head, in turn, reports into a service offering head and he/she reports to a business unit head.  The move aims to reduce the number of handlers and enable faster decision-making and to give frontline leaders more flexibility. Apparently, it will also reduce cost significantly given that the salary for a delivery manager or an industry principal is an average of Rs 35-Rs 40 lakh. 

Currently, Infosys has over 30,000 employees in senior roles or what they call JL 6, 7, and 8. Around 13,000 employees are in JL7 levels and above. The plan is to reduce, in a staggered manner, 10%-15% of the people at JL7 and above, which would impact over 1,300 executives.

A company spokesperson who spoke to TOI has denied any plans or targets for workforce reduction. However being a performance-driven organization, some involuntary attrition is a part of the normal course of business every year at Infosys. How much of this restructuring will result in the trimming of the workforce at senior levels, will become clearer in times to come.