Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. has asked its managers to classify at least 5% of the workforce in 'Band D', the lowest performance category for the latest appraisal cycle, news agency Mint reported on Monday.
“Please review critically and share the list of associates who can be considered for Band D, thereby meeting the agreed 5% distribution,” said an email from a TCS HR executive to one of the business unit heads of the company in April.
The move comes after the Indian IT giant completed its largest retrenchment exercise, laying off about 2% of its employees, many of which were classified as 'underperfomers'. Currently, TCS holds a headcount of approximately 584,519 employees.
The report highlighted that business unit heads have classified about nearly 17,500 people or roughly 3% of the workforce, as underperformers, stirring fresh panic across India's largest software services firm regarding job security.
ALSO READ: TCS Q4 Results: Profit In Line, Dividend, AI Momentum And More — Five Key Highlights
Last year, the Tata-group company had disclosed plans of letting go 2% of its workforce or approximately 12,200 employees in fiscal year 2026, affecting the middle and senior management.
The plans involved retraining and redeploying staff as it spreads into new markets by adopting advanced technologies and integrates AI.
"This transition is being planned with due care to ensure there is no impact on service delivery to our clients," the company said.
"We understand that this is a challenging time for our colleagues likely to be affected. We thank them for their service and we will be making all efforts to provide appropriate benefits, outplacement, counselling, and support as they transition to new opportunities," it added.
TCS Q4 Attrition
On a sequential basis, the total workforce increased by 2,356 employees 5,84,519 in the January-March quarter from 5,82,163 employees in the preceding December quarter of FY26.
However, on an annual basis, the total headcount declined by 23,460 employees from 6,07,979 in the year-ago period. The voluntary last-12 months (LTM) attrition rate rose to 13.7%. TCS reported 5.2 million competencies acquired in FY26 and 69 million total learnings hours clocked by employees during the full-year.
ALSO READ: TCS Q4 Attrition Rate Rises To 13.7%, Headcount Jumps By Over 2,000 Employees
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