TCS has halted appraisals for freshers due to non-compliance with its strict five-day work-from-office policy. This move affects freshers who joined directly from college, linking office attendance to performance outcomes. The policy is more stringent than typical hybrid models in the Indian IT sector, impacting employee evaluations.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India's largest IT services company, has reportedly put on hold the final anniversary appraisals for certain employees, primarily freshers, who have not complied with its strict work-from-office (WFO) policy.

The decision links physical office attendance directly to performance outcomes, making TCS the first among major Indian IT firms to take such formal action on appraisals for attendance violations.

Primarily impacts freshers

The final anniversary appraisal at TCS follows an annual cycle after an employee completes one year of service. Eligible freshers receive a notification email on their one-year completion, with updates also reflected on the company's internal portal, Ultimatix.

However, TCS discontinued final anniversary appraisals for lateral hires back in 2022. As a result, the current halt mainly affects freshers who joined the company directly from college.

Non-compliance in key quarters triggers halt

An internal email reviewed by TOI states, “Please note your anniversary appraisal process is completed but not processed further by corporate since you are WFO non-compliant till Q2 FY26 (July 2025 to September 2025). If your anniversary is not committed in January 2025 due to WFO non-compliance in Q3, as a consequence, you will be excluded from the FY26 banding cycle and no performance band will be released."

This means that while supervisors may have completed initial reviews and goal sheets, the corporate processing and release of performance bands are paused for non-compliant employees. Continued violations could lead to complete exclusion from the annual FY26 performance banding cycle.

TCS has a strict five-day WFO mandate

TCS requires employees to work from the office five days a week, a policy stricter than most peers in the Indian IT sector, where hybrid models of two or three days are more common.

The company has already linked variable pay to attendance compliance and introduced tighter rules for exceptions last year. These include:

- Up to six days per quarter for personal emergencies (non-carry forward)

- Up to 30 exceptions for space constraints in a single entry

- Up to five entries for network issues

- No bulk uploads or backend entries allowed