Accenture to skip hikes for India employees, defers SMD promotions – Times of India

BENGALURU: Accenture is skipping salary hikes this time around for its India-based employees. It has 3 lakh employees in India. Accenture is also deferring promotions to those at the levels of managing directors (MDs) and appointing senior managing directors (SMDs) until June next year. The promotions are effective December 1. “We are postponing our promotions to and within MD, and appointments to SMD, until June 2024 in order to allow ourselves to return to growth so that promotions are affordable.” Last year, Accenture said 1,214 people were promoted to MD and 119 people to senior MD globally. “Upto career level 5 (senior roles), we will do promotions in December 2023, lower than last year reflecting our growth expectations,” the email sent to employees said.
Accenture has forecast a tepid revenue growth of 2% to 5% in the 2024 fiscal signalling a subdued business environment as clients cut back on discretionary spending. It also expects revenues for the first quarter of the 2024 fiscal to be in the range of $15.8 billion to $16.4 billion, translating into a growth of -2% to 2%. “Given the context of our performance, we will not be providing any stay-at-level (base pay) increases this year except where legally mandated or committed in a few critical skill areas.” “As shared in our FY23 results, we experienced a macro economic environment that was more challenging than we anticipated at the beginning of FY23 and our growth was lower than planned resulting in the need to make some hard decisions around promotions and rewards,” the email said.
When TOI reached out to Accenture, the company said, ““Our rewards philosophy is to provide market relevant pay based on the skills and locations where we operate. We also consider a variety of factors, including the macroeconomic environment in making our decisions around pay and benefits.“