The app, Zero Bench, allows the employees at Infosys to apply for projects within the company, depending on their skillsets.
Employees at India’s second largest IT company, Infosys, will not have to sit on the bench to be assigned work. In fact, they can now opt for a project or an assignment through an internal app launched by the company.
Called Zero Bench, the app works like the one used by radio taxi operators, where drivers can choose and connect with the passengers who are willing to travel. Similarly, employees at Infosys can now apply for projects within the company depending on their skillsets.
The company aims to optimise the use of its existing trained talent who may be between projects or on the bench, and minimise external hiring at the same time.
Indian IT companies, which outsource tech talent, follow a model where a part of the team is currently occupied with an existing project while another part is on the bench waiting for an assignment. Companies prefer to keep certain number of employees on the bench with the hope to grab a business and provide its service without any delay. However, while this model works well during an economic boom, it becomes a burden for the organisations during a slump.
These bench employees always fear losing their jobs unless they quickly get on to a project. They are on the company’s payrolls but are not working on any project. Therefore, their billing value is zero.
Besides, it has always been a challenge for companies to keep a balance between employees on projects and those on the bench. In addition, there is rarely an optimum use of the talent.
This app aims to streamline allocation of work and thus maximise resources.
The company claims that this initiative has seen tremendous response since its launch, supplemented by continuous communication through its internal channels.
If this model works out well for Infosys, there could be external takers for this app as well.
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This is an innovative idea. Optimum utilization of human potential is important in any organization for employee engagement and productivity
nice initiative of Zero Bench.
Can anyone clarify how is this different from Internal job postings or concept of Career Management?
I like this concept and would like to know more on how they are using the bench staff for internal projects and what are they. More details on internal projects. Please do the favour in this area.
Resource optimization is the need of the hour for organizations while we observe economical vulnerabilities across the globe. The performance of the Companies like Infosys are dependant largely on these global cues. Hence, I believe in the principal “a rupee saved is a rupee earned”. It certainly will facilitate low or no hiring while my in-house talent is on bench. The App is not important however the thought is. It may not necessarily an IJP or Career Mgmt or enlargement of a job. It is purely a business need. Why should add cost on acquiring a talent where a talent within my Organization has no work and waiting for new task!