TCS appraisal shake-up: Managers reportedly asked to place 5% employees in lowest rating band

India’s largest IT services company, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, has reportedly asked managers to ensure that at least 5% of employees are placed in the lowest performance bracket, ‘Band D’, as part of the latest appraisal cycle, according to a report by Mint. 

Citing an internal email sent by a TCS HR executive to a business unit head in April, the report said managers were instructed to “review critically and share the list of associates who can be considered for Band D, thereby meeting the agreed 5% distribution.”

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The development comes months after Tata Consultancy Services carried out its largest workforce reduction exercise, cutting nearly 2% of its staff strength. Many of the employees impacted in that exercise were reportedly categorised as underperformers.

TCS currently employs around 584,519 people globally. According to the report, business unit heads have already classified nearly 17,500 employees, or roughly 3% of the workforce, under the underperformer category.

Last year, TCS announced plans to reduce around 12,200 roles, equivalent to about 2% of its workforce, during FY26. The restructuring was expected to primarily impact middle and senior management employees as the company accelerates its shift towards artificial intelligence-led operations and newer technology areas.

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At the time, TCS had said the company was focusing on retraining and redeploying employees as part of its transition strategy.

“This transition is being planned with due care to ensure there is no impact on service delivery to our clients,” the company had 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.

In its January-March quarter results, TCS reported a sequential increase of 2,356 employees, taking its total workforce to 584,519 from 582,163 in the previous quarter.

However, on a year-on-year basis, the company’s headcount declined by 23,460 employees from 607,979 a year earlier. TCS also reported that its last-12-month voluntary attrition rate rose to 13.7%.