Posted by Overview
India’s top four IT services companies will add more than the estimated 120,000 freshers this year, on strong demand across sectors and to offset increased attrition rates.
The big four — Tata Consultancy Services (TCS NSE -1.20 %), Infosys NSE 0.38 %, Wipro NSE 5.30 % and HCL — have hiked their projections for hiring of freshers from the first quarter and are cumulatively likely to add more than 160,000 people.
These companies together employ over a fourth of India’s 4.6 million IT workforce.
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They added 1,02,517 people, both freshers as well as lateral hires, in the first six months of the year.
The companies have been reporting large deal wins and a healthy deal pipeline but are also dealing with a sharp spike in attrition rates, necessitating headcount additions.
Infosys has increased its revenue growth forecast for the fiscal year on broad-based demand across geographies and verticals in the first half of the year. As a result, its demand for tech talent has risen.
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“The kind of demand we are seeing is unusually high. The last time we saw this kind of demand goes back to 2010 or so,” said UB Pravin Rao, chief operating officer, Infosys.
The company had rolled out another round of salary hikes and promotions, but attrition rates remain high, he said.
For the quarter ended September 30, the attrition rate increased to 20.1% from 13.9% at the end of June.
Cross-town rival Wipro added 11,475 employees during the quarter, including 8,000 freshers, its highest ever yet.
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Wipro is expecting to hire 16,000-17,000 freshers in the current fiscal year and is targeting to hire 25,000-30,000 freshers next year, chief executive Thierry Delaporte said.
In an industry first, Wipro has begun offering campus recruits not only details of their joining package but also a five-year plan of compensation growth, to retain them for longer.
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It is part of the company’s strategy to address attrition over the long term.
“Clearly, the objective is that when you’re a fresher, you should not after three years feel that it’s time to move on for 10% more (compensation). I think it’s foolish,” Delaporte, also its managing director, said. “The plan that we’ve built is really to allow them to project themselves if they’re ambitious and are willing to grow in the organisation and give them a perspective that they did not have before.”
TCS, India’s largest IT services firm by revenue, said last week that it was increasing its projections for fresher hiring during the ongoing financial year to 78,000 this fiscal year from 43,000 earlier, as attrition rates went up to 11.9% from 8.6% in Q1.