DXC Technologies mails another corp message (gulp)

Repeated redundancy programmes and the imposition of penny pinching measures can make a workforce glum, no matter how many fancy dress days a company offers: DXC Technologies might have realised this.

The outsourcing provider has this week informed its grunts in the UK who don’t qualify for existing bonus schemes that one is winding its way to them from the beginning of fiscal ’18 that starts in April. US staffers have also been contacted, we're told.

“We recognise that our people are essential to DXC Technology’s ability to deliver on our mission and on the promise of digital transformation for our clients,” said UK boss Nick Wilson in a message to his troops.

“To accomplish this, a key strategic pillar is all about investing in our people around the globe, and providing them with opportunities to participate and therefore share in our success,” he added.

The Success Sharing Programme (SSP) is for staffers not eligible to participate in another DXC incentive or profit sharing plan, and will reward “top-performing employees”.

“For FY18, if DXC exceeds company-wide earning before interest and taxes target and you have contributed significantly to achieving this goal as indicated by your performance and management’s endorsement, you may be eligible to receive up to five per cent of your base salary as recognition for your contributions to DXC’s success.”

No further details were available at this point and it seems a bit nebulous and down to interpretation rather than hard numbers, at least in its current proposal. But getting a bonus will depend on achieving top levels in the rating that managers have established to measure the output of their staff.

SSP is, as one DXC contact put it, for the “rank and file employees’. Currently, senior execs, managers, senior technical delivery and sales people are the ones on bagging the bonuses.

Staff contacted by The Reg reacted to the message with scepticism. But the contents must have been preferable to ones about redundancies or requests to restrict employee travel.

“It’s good internal PR for not a lot of money. In this case, about the worst you can say is that they are being cheap with the percentage,” one worker told The Register.

Another claimed SSP was received with "pretty much univseral snorts of derision" because it will be based on target that workers have no input into or control over.

"The award is limited to those deemed top performers when the appraisal system is in as much disrepute as the salary system, because top management get together and "adjust the results to a smooth curve," an insider told us.

Frankenfirm DXC was born out of the corporate pile-up between HPE’s outsourcing division and integrator CSC on 3 April.

For fiscal ’18, DXC is forecasting EBIT of $2.937bn and $3.391bn for the following year. It is cutting costs to help achieve those financial milestones including offshoring jobs to lower cost locations, and consolidating real estate including data centres. ®