Future lies in the youth, at least in the information technology sector. Greenhorns in IT may soon outstrip experienced employees in number as companies are ramping up their ?get-freshers? campaign to improve efficiency. The percentage of freshers in IT companies has gone up significantly in the last three years and is likely to rise further as corporates call it ?investing in the future?.
Currently, while in most IT companies freshers comprise about a quarter of the total workforce, TCS already has nearly 51% employees with experience of less than three years. About 45% of Satyam?s associates are freshers. The ratio of experienced staff to freshers was 60:40 in Satyam a few years back.
According to IT firms, freshers are trained extensively to increase productivity, which helps curb wage inflation.
?In a fast-growing industry, fresh graduates from campuses are the biggest talent pool available to us. Not only does hiring of freshers help in bringing down the cost of delivery, but also acts as an investment for future growth,? said a Satyam executive.
HCL comprises a workforce of 46,000 individuals, of which 25% are freshers. A healthy ratio of freshers to experienced workers, growing at a rate of 5-10%, is working well for the company, which is looking at striking a ?judicious balance? of 50:50 in the coming years.
?If one needs to take a call between the ?make vs buy? approach, the make approach is preferred, as employees can be groomed in alignment with an organisation?s needs, and are likely to stick around for a longer time,? said Priti Rajora, head, campus hiring, Wipro.
About 20% of Wipro?s total workforce consists of employees with less than one year of experience, but in the next three years, the company expects it to be 25%.
In Infosys, 25% of the workers are freshers. However, as a percentage of the hiring in a year, fresh graduates comprised 70%, said Bikramjit Maitra, senior VP and head, HR, Infosys.