Infosys, the IT bellwether, delivered a shocker on Friday when it announced to its shareholders that there would not be any increment for the time being for its 149,000 employees.

Infosys failed to meet its own growth guidance for the just concluded quarter and has given a lower-than-expected growth projection for fiscal 2013. "This is the time to focus only on business. All stakeholders ask for one thing and that is growth. In the current environment, leadership has to focus only on growth.

Today morning after our management council meet we announced that there will be no hikes, of course, employees will understand," said Nandita Gurjar, head of HR. Infosys said markets are volatile and this would not be the right time for wage increase.

"We will give a raise when we have more comfort on business," said V Balakrishnan, CFO of the firm. Last year, the firm had given an increment of 10-12%.

The recruitment and hiring experts, however, refuse to buy this assurance especially when another IT firm, albeit a smaller size, iGate-Patni that has also announced its results on Friday, decided to give a 10% raise to its employees. "It is time these companies start serving their employees and not their shareholders," said S Kandula, HR Head, iGate-Patni.

Despite the assurance that better business would mean a call for salary increase in the year ahead, a poor business forecast at the same time does not reflect well for the IT giant's employer brand tag. Infosys expects to grow at 8-10% in the coming fiscal, compared to 23% of Cognizant, the only other IT firm that has given growth guidance for the current fiscal.

"Infosys is conservative with its salary and this move may result in attrition," said Kunal Banerji, CEO of executive search firm Absolute HR International.

This is not the first time that the company has announced zero increments. In 2008, Infosys had announcedzero increments but, in the middle of the year gave a 10% raise to all.

"This is against the trend since things are definitely better than what they were in 2008 and may impact middle and small IT firms who look at Infosys as a trendsetter," said the head of Human Capital Services of one of the largest consulting firms who did not wish to be named.