TCS' new deployment policy: Minimum billing days set, bench period slashed to 35 days — how will it impact employees?

Mint

6 hours ago

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India's largest IT company, has launched a new associate deployment policy. The policy comes with an updated mandate that employees work for a minimum of 225 business days in the last one-year period with a reduced bench period, reported the Times of India on Tuesday, 17 June 2025.
'At any given point in time, associates must be allocated for a minimum period of 225 business days in the last 12 months,' the report said, citing official policy documents from TCS.
The report also mentioned that TCS' Global Head, Chandrasekaran Ramkumar, laid out the new policy, which became effective on 12 June 2025.
According to the report, TCS seeks to monitor and evaluate employee performance through the new deployment policy. The company is restricting the time that each individual employee gets to foster a proactive approach to people allocation.
Through this policy, the company also aims to ensure that both the organisational and the individual goals are met, as per the news report.
The documents reviewed by the news portal showed that if an employee fails to work for a minimum period of 225 business days in the last 12 months and has longer unallocated periods, or more than 35 business days a year, this will impact the individual's compensation, career growth, avenues of overseas deployment in future, and employment in TCS.
'Long periods of remaining unallocated shall adversely impact associate compensation, career growth, avenues of overseas deployment in future, and continuity of employment with the organisation,' reported the news portal, citing the company documents.
If an employee is 'unallocated' to a task, the company mandates that the individual participate in upskilling programmes through platforms such as iEvolve, Fresco Play, VLS, and LinkedIn.
These employees also have a 'primary responsibility' of engaging with their units to seek allocation and taking initiative to pursue opportunities provided by TCS.
'In the event an associate is unallocated, it is the primary responsibility of the associate to proactively engage with the Unit/Regional RMG for seeking allocation and take initiative towards pursuing suitable opportunities provided by the organisation,' as per the documents, cited in the report.
The IT major has also mandated the employees' physical presence in the office premises or work-from-office (WFO), which makes WFO exceptions and flexible work arrangements inapplicable.
'However, associates may request short-term flexible work options for personal emergencies in exceptional circumstances, subject to organisational policies and prior approval from the RMG,' the company was quoted as saying in the report.