After Oracle, Cognizant Gives A Big Shock To Employees

The rapid growth of Artificial Intelligence is taking a big toll on the workforce as IT giants are not holding themselves back in announcing massive round of layoffs without any second thoughts. A few weeks ago, Oracle has trimmed its employees with a mass downsizing, which is believed to be the biggest in the company’s history.

Following suit, another IT behemoth is now gearing up for a similar excercise. And this time, bulk of Indians are likely to get impacted because it is Cognizant which announced that around 12000 to 15000 employees are going to lose jobs in a major restructuring operation as part of ‘ Project Leap’, which aims to cut down its expenses through slashing of workforce.

Recently, the Nasdaq-listed firm officially announced that the company will incur between $230 million and $320 million in severance costs under its new initiative. However, it did not share any official numbers on job losses. But, industry experts predict that the number could vary between 12000 to 15000 job cuts.

Cognizant currently employs over 357,000 people worldwide and more than 250,000 of these employees are based out in India. So, this round of layoffs will impact majority of our IT professionals. Cognizant’s CEO, Ravi Kumar S, also confirmed the news and said the changes are part of a global programme that will impact different parts of the organisation.

This is not the first time that Cognizant is planning to handover slips to its employees. Previously, the company’s NextGen programme saw around 3,500 roles eliminated and a significant reduction in office space footprint. But, the latest move is going to be the largest cost cutting measure in the company’s history.