TCS Appraisal On Hold? Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has put on hold the final anniversary appraisal outcomes for a section of fresher employees who failed to comply with the company’s five-day-a-week
work-from-office (WFO) mandate in earlier financial quarters. The development was communicated through an internal email dated January 8, 2026, reviewed by The Times of India.
According to the email, the anniversary appraisal process itself was completed — supervisors had initiated reviews and created employees’ goal sheets on Ultimatix, TCS’s internal portal. However, the company did not proceed with releasing the final performance band for these employees as they were classified as WFO non-compliant until Q2 FY26, covering the July–September 2025 period. TCS did not respond to media queries before publication, the report added.
At TCS, the anniversary appraisal is an annual evaluation triggered once an employee completes one year in the organisation. Eligible employees receive an automated anniversary email, after which their review cycle appears on the intranet. The reporting manager then creates a goal sheet, which the employee fills out and submits. This is followed by a discussion to align expectations. Performance is subsequently assessed over several months based on goal achievement, delivery consistency, teamwork, adherence to deadlines, and overall contribution. The cycle concludes with the release of a performance band, which serves as the annual rating.
Notably, TCS discontinued anniversary appraisals for lateral hires in 2022, meaning the current development primarily affects freshers who joined the company directly from college.
TCS currently mandates five days of office attendance each week — a stricter policy than most Indian IT firms, where hybrid models of two or three days in office remain common. The company has also linked variable pay to attendance compliance, reinforcing that physical presence at the workplace is now a formal performance parameter.
To manage attendance exceptions, TCS revised its policy last year. Employees can claim personal emergency exemptions for up to six days per quarter, which cannot be carried forward. For space or seating constraints, employees can file up to 30 exceptions in a single entry, while network-related issues allow five entries at a time. Bulk uploads and backend edits for attendance exceptions are no longer permitted.
The internal email further cautioned that employees marked non-compliant in Q3 FY26 who miss the January 2025 appraisal commitment will be excluded from the FY26 banding cycle altogether, with no performance band released.
The move has triggered widespread discussion within the company, particularly among freshers, many of whom view it as confirmation that office attendance is no longer a flexible guideline but a strictly monitored requirement with direct career consequences.
