HCL Tech announces big changes to variable pay policy – Who will benefit? When will employees get hike? Details here
IT giant HCL Tech has announced its plan to change its three-month variable pay policy to fixed salaries for all employees and introduce salary increases from October, following last year’s process.
“We have also decided to carry over three months of variable salary and convert it into fixed salary and combine it with fixed salary for all our employees,” HCL Tech’s Chief Human Resources Officer Ram Sundararajan said in a press conference after the quarterly earnings announcement on Monday.
How does HCL Tech variable pay work?
HCL Tech’s variable pay system has two components. The first is true for most of the employees involved in the project. It includes variable pay based on project performance metrics, distributed quarterly. According to Sundararajan, the IT firm has combined this part with the fixed fee and it is now paid as a fixed monthly salary.
“We had variable salary that was linked to project-level performance metrics, distributed on a quarterly basis. This is the part that we combined with the fixed salary, so it is paid as a fixed monthly salary,” the head of HR said.
The second component of variable pay is the annual performance bonus and this will continue, Sundararajan said. If we consider tying your pay to performance, the ongoing component is the annual performance bonus and this will continue to apply.
Who is likely to benefit from the change?
According to the IT expert, the switch from a three-month variable pay policy will primarily benefit junior staff, while senior employees will continue to receive annual performance bonuses.
When will HCL Tech employees get a pay raise?
The IT major will begin implementing annual increases starting in October 2025. The company will follow the same process as last year.
“We have gone ahead and decided to implement the increases that will be effective from October. We will follow the same process we followed last year on how we will carry out the increase process,” Ram Sundararajan said.
HCL Tech attrition rate
The IT professional voluntary employee layoff rate decreased to 12.6% in September 2025 from 12.9% in September 2024 and 12.8% in June 2025. This shows, on a trailing twelve-month (LTM) basis, there was a decline in the number of employees leaving the company last year, according to the company’s regulatory filing.
HCL Tech had 226,640 total employees as of September 30, 2025, compared to 223,151 at the end of June 2025; This reflects a net increase of 3,489 employees in the quarter. On a year-on-year (YoY) basis, the company had 8,019 employees, up from 218,621 in September 2024.
