The second-largest IT services provider in India, Infosys Limited, has joined in on the controversial Moonlighting conversation and acknowledged that it had to let go of certain employees due to dual employment as moonlighting continues to be an unpopular issue in the IT industry. Simply put, moonlighting refers to employees taking on side jobs to supplement their income while working several jobs.
On Thursday 13th October, Infosys CEO and MD Salil Parekh during the Q2 earnings briefing, made statements regarding the ''moonlighting'' and "gig economy" issue. He said that although the company does not support the employees involved in dual employment, the company has come up with a ''gig program'' within the firm to motivate staff members to pursue knowledge and activities outside the scope of their normal jobs.
Explaining his point he said "We have been putting a lot of effort into providing our personnel with internal development opportunities. In general, we have always pushed for that mentality in our staff. In reality, over the past few years, the company has established a platform called "Accelerate" where employees can look at what we internally referred to as "gig work"—different initiatives outside of their primary employment.
He added that, on the "Accelerate" platform, over 4,000 people submit applications annually on average, and only approximately 600 of them are chosen. Parekh went on to elaborate on the company's strategy about job openings outside the organization, saying, "For job openings in the external environment, we support the desires of our people to develop outside their work."
He also added that the company had to let go of the employees who were involved in dual employment due to confidentiality issues. Accelerate projects, according to sources familiar with the concept, are brief assignments put on the platform by managers for employees to do in their spare time. Teams from human resources also organize events to introduce the platform to the workforce. Parekh emphasized the measures the company has made to make sure there were many options for the employees to advance and that they may explore gig assignments within the company.
Parekh said where gig opportunities in the external environment is concerned, Infosys supports aspirations of employees to learn beyond their work but after prior approval of manager has been obtained.
© Vygr Media Private Limited 2022. All Rights Reserved.
