The Hindu Business Line : Wage hike in tech sector likely to moderate, says Wipro HR head

Mr Pratik Kumar

Our Bureau

Hyderabad, July 29 Wage hike in the technology sector this year is in for moderation as it is adopting a cautious approach to new recruitments, according to Mr Pratik Kumar, Vice-President and Head of Human Resources at Wipro.

As opposed to a hike of about 12-14 per cent last year, it could be about 8-10 per cent during the current fiscal. In any case most of the hikes have been announced, he said.

Speaking to reporters here on Tuesday, Mr Kumar said recruitments by tech companies will get lot more discretionary. Unlike in the past, Wipro, in particular, has adopted a non-linear approach to growth.

Citing the case of Wipro BPO, he said the company added about 50 per cent in revenue in the last two years without adding numbers by adopting platform-based services, innovative approach to solutions and improving internal efficiencies.

“Another major focus for Wipro and possibly other companies is on improving internal efficiencies and improving productivity. This could go up by 2-3 per cent. We have managed to do similar thing in the past,” he said.

For a company with 90,000 employees, a one per cent improvement translates to 900 more people engaged in projects and higher revenues. This means that the rate of utilisation could go up from 78.5 per cent to higher levels.

“Being large, we can scale up based on the need. However, this does not mean lesser recruitment. This will become more discretionary and depend upon business needs,” he said.

Asked if they delayed inducting some fresh recruits due to slowdown, Mr Kumar said, “In the company’s history, it has never done so and would never do so. All the recruits have been inducted as per plan.”
COMMUNITY PORTAL

Launching the Mission 10X Community Portal, Mr Kumar said this portal would serve as a resource base for the ambitious project Wipro launched to train trainers, and thereby help groom engineering graduates in employability skills.

From presence in five States since the project launch in September last, the company is looking at a pan-India presence and keen to train about 10,000 trainers by 2010. The objective of this mission is to have well groomed trainers, who would help broaden the talent pool.
The Principal of University College of Engineering, Osmania University, Prof D.N. Reddy, said already about 1,000 faculty members have passed through training and certification offered in collaboration with Wipro. Results show that this has helped bring about marked improvement in communication skills.
This programme’s underlying purpose is to step up the employable pool, estimated at just about 8 per cent of engineering graduates coming out in the country.

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