Tata Consultancy Services' Bench Policy: Strengthening or Weakening the Bench?

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India's largest IT services firm, announced a new associate (employee) deployment policy in June 2025 to reduce the time employees spent on the bench, that is, without any active project assignments. The policy limited the bench period to 35 business days a year and required employees to be billable for at least 225 days annually. While the goal was to improve workforce utilization and reduce costs, many employees felt anxious and uncertain about their future at TCS. They raised concerns about poor communication, lack of support during the bench period, pressure to accept mismatched roles, and the possibility of being laid off after the bench period. The policy also drew attention from employee unions, and the matter was escalated to the Ministry of Labour and Employment. As TCS prepared for the next bench cycle, the firm's senior leadership team had to decide whether to stick with the current approach, strengthen support systems to help employees find suitable projects internally, or try a new route, such as training employees in business development so they could nurture entrepreneurial skills and proactively explore potential project opportunities.