Hexaware Technologies is setting up centres with smaller capacities across smaller markets, a shift from the traditional IT industry format of setting up large campuses with a capacity to staff thousands of employees. “This is going to be the big shift in strategy for the company,” CEO, R Srikrishna, told BusinessLine.

Over the months of the pandemic, the ITES company has hired across markets globally including Sub Africa, Lebanon, Turkey and Portugal, where it doesn’t have any office campus or centres. Remote working and smaller centres primarily for BPO employees will be the way ahead for the company as it plans to add 10,000 employees in 2022 to its existing 25,000.

“You can find talent even in smaller markets and we can hire 100 or 50 people as opposed to the industry-thinking of setting up large campuses and hiring thousands of people. Given that the number of places we are hiring has gone up significantly at these places, we are opening centres,” Srikrishna said.

Small is the new big

Last week, the company opened its second centre in Philippines, which along with an earlier centre currently has 500 employees. In India, where Hexaware has around 75-80 per cent of its employee base, it is in the process of setting up a centre in Bhopal with a capacity for 1,000 employees.

Hexaware, too, has been seeing a higher attrition rate in the tune of between 17-22 per cent, but the numbers have started to stabilise, Srikrishna said. Within the first three months of 2022, Hexaware has hired 900 freshers from various colleges. On Thursday, the company announced its new board members, a year after delisting from the stock market and getting acquired by The Carlyle Group.

The company appointed six representatives from Carlyle’s leadership team globally across regions, while onboarding Michael W Bender, Non-Executive Chairman and Senior Partner Emeritus of McKinsey & Company as the new Non-Executive Chairman on Hexaware’s board. Joseph McLaren Quinlan – Independent Director and former Deloitte CIO has also joined the board. Srikrishna will continue to serve as the Executive Director on the Board while Milind Sarwate will continue in his role as Independent Director.

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