Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has continued to link quarterly variable pay to work-from-office attendance and a deployment index, with the company disbursing Q4 FY26 variable payouts at 60-80% for mid- and senior-level employees who met the attendance threshold. The framework was reaffirmed in internal compensation guidelines circulated to employees in late May.
Under the existing structure, employees who maintain a work-from-office compliance score of 85% or higher are eligible for the full performance payout. Those with attendance between 75 and 85% receive 75% of the variable component. Employees in the 60-75% band qualify for 50%. Anyone below the 60% threshold does not receive the quarterly variable payout.
The compensation mechanism does not stop at attendance. A deployment index, which indicates whether an employee is billed to a client project, is also used in payout calculations. Together, the two factors determine the final amount an employee receives in addition to fixed pay.
According to a Moneycontrol report, the Q4 FY26 payouts mark the second consecutive quarter of improved disbursements. “Our quarterly variable pay for Q4 was released with April’s salary,” an employee was quoted as saying in the report. Several mid-level employees, however, received only about 50% of their eligible variable pay because their office attendance remained close to the 60% floor.
For nearly two years before Q3 FY26, variable payouts at TCS for mid- and senior-level employees had remained in the 20-50% range. The improvement in the last two quarters reflects both stronger business performance and a more selective application of the attendance-linked formula.
