Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation (NASDAQ:CTSH) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Jan Siegmund: Maybe I’ll give Ravi also a tiny breather here and talk about the improved attrition, which is certainly one. First step into the right direction of becoming a more attractive employer and seeing it reflected. So clearly the dynamic in the labor markets have shifted also, but we also believe that the investments that we have made not only in regular and competitive merit cycles. You may remember we announced in the last quarter that we had accelerated our €“ this year’s merit cycle to the second quarter, which is also important for the modeling of you guys into the second quarter. And that we have made huge progress on internal promotions, career pathing and learning and development and education, et cetera, as we have increased the number of our college graduates into our permit.

So I think we have seen now a year of this permit from a nuts and bolts piece to stabilize, and we were very pleased with this relatively steep drop in nutrition in just one quarter. So we feel we are off to a good start here and then I think Ravi is focus on management, on enthusiasm, on growth and aligning will help. And then we’ll kind of continue to refine those investments as we €“ as we need it. But I think we have already ended the year actually on that side with a big step forward.

Ravi Kumar: And also the talent supply chain, we’ve been able to streamline it, strengthen it, and be ready for fulfillment and opportunities, which our clients are looking forward to.

Tien-Tsin Huang: Yes. Then if it’s okay, if I can ask my follow-up then with €“ given that 10-point drop in attrition and you’ve still hired a little bit, the utilization rates did drop. So from a modeling perspective, not to bore people, but anything to guide us to in the short-term on some of those KPIs because they are moving quite a bit here?

Jan Siegmund: We’re obviously on this utilization metric also a very detailed answer. In this quarter, the slight decrease in utilization is actually more driven by the relative higher percentage of Gen Z hires into our pyramid, which are not as utilized in the young age and actually a return to normalized location taking compared to the COVID years of where we had abnormally low vacation period. So those were the biggest factors. So I wouldn’t model too much into the utilization. Obviously, we need to drive growth and as we now have better fulfillment opportunities. But in this quarter, actually, some of the utilization, both were the 2 biggest factors, Tien-Tsin.

Tien-Tsin Huang: Okay. Perfect. Thank you Jan and Ravi. Appreciate that and look forward to get to the updates and safe and healthy travels. Thanks.

Ravi Kumar: Thank you.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of James Faucette with Morgan Stanley. Please proceed with your question.

James Faucette: Great. Thank you so much. I want to follow-up a little bit on Tien-Tsin’s question as well as Jan and Ravi’s comment is. If we look at Ravi, your initial stages of evaluating and listening to customers and what you’re seeing in the business? And if I put that together with Jan’s comments around investment that seems to be helping in attrition, et cetera. I’m wondering if the two of you can give some perspective on if there’s anything that stands out right now as maybe points or places where there could have been under investment that you’d like to direct resources, and how does that impact the way that you’re thinking about €“ you and the Board are thinking about the right objectives from a cost and profitability standpoint?