IT sector hiring up in first quarter

Hiring in the IT sector is gaining momentum. Tata Consultancy Services’ (TCS) net hiring of 12,356 in the first quarter was the highest in the last five years. Wipro, too, has seen a strong intake while Infosys’ hiring was relatively lower.

“TCS was built organically and will continue to do that. Growing organically is a phenomenal strategy that it has adopted,” Ravi Viswanathan, Chief Marketing Officer, TCS, said in a panel discussion at the Nasscom HR Summit, on Wednesday.

The high addition was to support the company’s growth as it tapped into the talent pool across the world. The total number of employees at TCS stands at 436,641 at the end of the first quarter.

Wipro’s net hiring was 3,425 in Q1, which was more than thrice that in the same quarter last year. In March quarter, the company reported negative growth in net hiring.

Infosys in Q1 hired 906 employees, which was a sharp reduction when compared with the previous quarter and in the corresponding quarter of last year.

V Ramakrishnan, Chief Financial Officer, TCS, told analysts in a recent call, that the company had issued joining letters to over 30,000 fresh graduates in the Q1 and completed on-boarding 40 per cent of them within the quarter. “We expect to on-board the rest by second quarter itself. Our accelerated localisation initiatives and focus on diversity and inclusiveness continue to yield good results.”

The proportion of the women in workforce rose further to 36.1 per cent.

The number of nationalities represented in TCS is now 149.

“ This is resulting in a vibrant and engaging workplace that attracts and retains talent. We continue to enjoy the lowest attrition rate in the sector globally,” he said. TCS reported an attrition rate of 11.5 per cent in the June quarter.

Abidali Neemuchwala, Chief Executive Officer, Wipro, told analysts that in Q1, the company hired 6,000 freshers and on-boarded them globally. “We continue to invest in our employees and we completed our annual merit salary increase process across the organisation as planned. Our attrition on a trailing 12-month basis remained in a very narrow band at about 17.6 per cent.”

Infosys witnessed a higher attrition rate of 23.4 per cent in the first quarter. This was largely due to seasonality since employees leave to pursue higher studies, said the company’s CFO Pravin Rao during an investor call. “We focus on strengthening the employee engagement, accelerated carrier path for top performers, greater learning opportunities and performance-based differentiation,” he said.

COMMENT NOW