Infosys Technologies has placed around 5 per cent of its global workforce under the scanner. The move, which is being seen as an offshoot of the global financial meltdown, is expected to affect over 5,000 of the 100,000-plus employees on the company's rolls.

It is learnt that Infosys [Get Quote], the country's second-largest information technology services provider, has told its senior managers (project managers, senior and group project managers, delivery managers) to give the lowest performance rating (4 on a scale of 1-4) to the 'underperforming' 5 per cent as a part of the company's consolidated relative ranking (CRR).

Though rock-bottom rankings are not unknown in the company, this is the first time that Infosys has made it mandatory. CRR is decided based on the employee's appraisals which is done twice a year. "The recommendations have already been submitted this month," a senior project manager working with Infosys told Business Standard on the condition of anonymity.

Infosys Vice-president and Group HR Head Nandita Gurjar said there was no change in the policy but "...the percentage of employees who are given CRR 4 keeps varying every year between 1 per cent and 5 per cent based on their performance."

The company has decided to implement a six-month mentoring programme for such employees after which it will decide their future based on the improvements they have made. As a part of this programme, each affected employee will be asked to work under the supervision of a mentor who is a senior executive.

During this period, the employee will not be given any important assignment, even though he will be allowed to work on the project where he is working at present. If the concerned employee is on bench, he will give all his time for the mentoring programme. During this time, the employee will get full salary as well as the regular allowances.

"While 50 per cent of such employees come back to the system, others get the message and quit voluntarily in most cases," Gurjar said.

It has also been learnt that about 40-50 pre-sale executives, most of who were located in the US, have been asked to quit during the last two months. Most of these people are from consulting background who are in a client-facing role. Gurjar confirmed the move but did not cite the number of people who have been asked to quit. "This is a part of our annual CRR initiative," she said.