TCS, Infosys, Wipro, others plan to hire 1.1 lakh this year from campuses as clients go digital

In 2021, India's top five IT companies aim to recruit in large numbers to meet the increasing demands for talent who can work on projects remotely for customers looking to digitally transform their businesses. TCS, India's largest outsourcer, expects to employ > 40,000 employees from campuses in 2021, while Infosys is expected to hire nearly 25,000, according to the Economic Times.

Wipro, which has not published a hiring schedule, has stated that it will hire more employees this year than last.

Last week, Infosys' chief operating officer, Mr. Pravin Rao told analysts that "growth has picked up" and that "most of the growth volumes are occurring in India, so there is vast potential for talent."

According to analysts, companies such as TCS, Wipro, Infosys, HCL Technologies, and Tech Mahindra, will employ > 110,000 employees in 2021, up from a net addition of more than 90,000 jobs in 2020.

The business daily quoted Mr. Kamal Karanth, cofounder of specialist staffing agency Xpheno, “Due to higher expected attrition, fresher hiring plans, the emergence of pent-up demand, the return of IT investment, and a re-filling of vacancies to stabilise utilisation rates, FY22 has started with a hiring boost.”

 

Mr. Karanth said, “Last year, the top five outsourcers employed a total of 2.10 lakh people, with more than 1.20 lakh of those hired due to attrition.”

Though TCS had a record low attrition rate of 7.2% in the fourth quarter of the previous fiscal year, Infosys and Wipro's attrition rates increased dramatically.

Both Bengaluru-based companies indicated that attrition would continue to climb and that they were implementing steps to retain employees.

“Attrition is expected to stay at this pace for the next one or two quarters,” said Mr. Rao of Infosys, as per the business daily.

“We are optimistic that with salary intervention, promotions, and other measures, we will be able to maintain it at this stage. We recruited 21,000 employees from campuses globally this year (FY21), and we expect to recruit 25,000 this year,” according to Mr. Rao.

 

Mr. Saurabh Govil, chief human resources officer of Wipro, said, “It is experiencing continued attrition and has pledged ability-based incentives for niche skill areas such as cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and domain experts.”

He said, “There is still a lot of pressure on us. The concept is to ring-fence key talent for our clients. This quarter, we hired 3,000 people on campus, and next quarter will be even bigger.”

Companies including DXC Technology, Mindtree, and others are also planning to increase hiring in the coming quarters to deal with higher attrition rates.

DXC Technology's India managing director, Mr. Nachiket Sukhtankar, told the business daily that the company made offers to 7,000 people from campuses this year, up from 4,500 last year.

Mindtree chief executive, Mr. Debhashis Chatterjee said, “In the last year, the organisation hired 1,600 employees, including campus and lateral hires. I believe that over the next two years, we will see that number rise as we continue and add to ensure a good balance of campus and laterals.”

Attrition at Mindtree has been steadily decreasing over the last few years, at 12.5%.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.