IT professionals working with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) will now spend more time at their workplaces, possibly as a fallout of the global economic crisis. The country’s largest software exporter has increased its work hours by 30 minutes — from the existing nine hours a day, to nine-and-a-half hours a day — two persons familiar with the development told Business Line.

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In doing so, TCS has become the second IT major to stretch its work hours, starting next year. Earlier, Accenture, in an internal communication, told its employees that they would have to work for an extra hour starting January 1.

A spokesperson for TCS who was approached for a response said the company is “constantly looking at ways to improve productivity and efficiency”. On the increase in working hours, no policy has been finalised or communicated yet to the employees, he said.

Productivity score

Though every employee at TCS may not have received an official communication on the new working hours, Business Line has learnt that a formal communication has already been despatched to the heads of the various business units within TCS. Employees down the line could be briefed in a few days, sources said.

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An increase in working hours could help the company improve overall productivity, as there will be an increase in the average revenue that each employee generates, according to Mr Harit Shah, IT Analyst, Angel Broking. “Since TCS has over one lakh employees, the productivity improvement for the company could be very significant,” he said.

Indian IT companies have been going slow on their hiring plans and are hence trying to extract the most out of their existing employees, said another IT analyst who did not wish to be identified. In most cases, increase in work hours is not compensated by salary revisions or extra days of leave, the analyst added.

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Let’s take a look at the most recent TCS quarterly results performance. I use this to understand where the organization is headed and a general sense of understanding how the overall IT industry stands today. With the information from these quarterly performance announcements, we can also analyze the trend of hiring of employees, joining dates, salary hikes, project pipelines, new acquisitions, and global expansion strategies.