Weird and de-motivating HR policies. They tend to bring people in at or near market rate and then quickly erode salaries by giving 0% pay awards until you reach the Capgemini median. This is despite getting a 'succeeding' rating in annual reviews.
The performance management process is very odd. You have a billable target of 95%, but are billed to the customer 100% but only about 20% of your annual review is based on the project you are assigned to, creating an odd situation where you can get top marks for your project performance and how your time has officially been assigned but have it averaged out to the median because you haven't done enough 'other stuff'.
What I also find odd is that your overall performance grade is not based on your actual performance. You can ensure you get a succeeding rating by doing well in projects but anything above that is actually based on how much other stuff you do compared to others. Project delivery is not enough.
They bell-curve the grades and only let so many above average grades through, probably because if you get a succeeding grade any form of pay raise at end of year is far from guaranteed. Sometimes the justification for why you only got a succeeding feels like gaslighting too. Often people are reviewed as exceeding and then pushed down to succeeding during calibration because they have 'too many good people'.
Cap is great if you are below average or happy to coast because you will get pushed into an average. Its not so good if you are above average, but not in the top 5-10% or focus on your project because you will get pushed down to an average.
This seems to be downside of being a number in 350k employee company. The practice management is decent, but they are hamstrung by HR.