TCS caps employee bench period at 35 days annually

Mumbai-based IT services giant Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has introduced a new associate deployment policy, capping the annual bench period at 35 business days.

Effective from June 12, 2025, the policy mandates that employees must be billable for at least 225 days each year. This change seeks to optimise workforce utilisation in alignment with both individual and company goals, according to media reports.

Impact on careers

The policy highlights that prolonged periods without project allocation may negatively affect an employee’s compensation, career advancement prospects, overseas assignments, and job continuity. Employees are now expected to take greater responsibility for securing assignments.

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Unallocated staff, that is, those who have been released from previous assignments and are awaiting new roles, must proactively liaise with their respective Unit or Regional Resource Management Group (RMG). The RMG, led by Chandrasekaran Ramkumar, oversees talent distribution across the company, said a Times of India report quoting company documents.

Mandatory upskilling

During bench periods, employees are required to engage in four to six hours of daily upskilling through platforms like iEvolve, Fresco Play, VLS, and LinkedIn. Completion of all prescribed training, participation in in-person sessions, and full attendance in learning programmes are compulsory.

Associates must also use TCS’s Gen AI interview coach and respond to feedback from mock interviews.

TCS has reinstated work-from-office as the standard. Remote or flexible work is discouraged and permitted only in rare, pre-approved cases involving personal emergencies.

Short Assignments Discouraged

The company has also advised against frequent participation in short-term projects, warning that recurring patterns of such engagements may prompt scrutiny by HR and could lead to disciplinary consequences.