Strategies for Utilizing Employees on Bench in IT Companies

Hi seniors,

I need your advice on how to utilize the employees who are on the bench (free). Ours is an IT company with a staff of 100. Employees on the bench are at the junior/middle level, with average skills, and the project they were working on has ended. Unfortunately, due to a lack of guidance/support from their project manager, the project got messed up. Now, my management is considering releasing these employees as there are currently no projects in the pipeline. I believe the project manager should also be let go since the lack of guidance has led to issues for the lower/middle-level employees. However, as you know, management is unlikely to easily release senior employees. Additionally, there are concerns about their skill set, even though we assessed and hired them for our company.

Kindly suggest how I should handle this scenario. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

This is very important; please reply as soon as possible.

Thank you,
Kevina

Hi Kevina,

Seems we are sailing in the same boat. I am also associated with an IT company and have two employees who have been on the bench for the past year. One of them got some work on the project, but that also ended in just two months. Due to their unique skill set, their BMs aren't able to engage them.

Now, as we have modified our HR policy, all our BMs need to assign their team members to a project; otherwise, attrition will impact their variable pay (which is paid upon the successful accomplishment of their targets, with attrition being one of them).

So, in any case, their BMs will either find them some work or ask them to leave, affecting their salary.

Regards

Hi Ditti,

Thanks for your suggestion! However, we have extra resources even after fulfilling the resource requirements for all the projects. Giving a notice to some employees will send a wrong message across the organization, and this is not our company tradition either. We have never done this in the past, giving a notice straight away without even giving a chance to prove their skills.

In addition, I joined this organization only 2 months ago, so employees might think that after the new HR joined, they are receiving notices, etc. I am really confused and worried about how to convince the management.

Thanks,
Kala