Cognizant has appointed Soma Pandey as the Head of Talent Management. This decision comes at a time when the company's attrition rate stood at 33 percent, the highest compared to its peers, and unable to fulfill its business potential due to lack of headcount.

Pandey’s appointment also comes after Suresh Bethavandu, global head of talent acquisition, resigned from Cognizant after a 25-year stint in October and joined Mindtree recently as Chief People Officer.

Pandey worked as CHRO in Firstsource Solutions for close to five years. With total experience of over 25 years, pandey has worked for firms such as Accenture, Randstad, Mastek, and ITC Ltd.

The company has over 300,000 employees globally with close to 200,000 in India. The company is focused on accelerating pressure hiring in India and also investing significantly in retaining employees taking into considerations the wage hikes, promotions, and also charter their career path.

Becky Schmitt, Chief People Officer, Cognizant, said in a statement, “We are excited to welcome Soma to the Cognizant family at a time when we are investing in the career growth and engagement of our talent more than ever. I look forward to how Soma will foster our distinct, high-performance culture, accelerate careers, drive engagement, and empower new-age leadership capabilities that will engineer impact for our clients.”