Infosys on Wednesday said that its hiring plans for the year were on track ? a barometer of the global demand environment. The firm plans to hire 45,000 employees by the year end even with the macroeconomic outlook in the US and Europe remaining gloomy. The IT major will hire 8,000 people during the third quarter, it said.
For the second-quarter ended September 30, Infosys made a gross addition of 15,352 people, while net addition stood at 8,262. In the corresponding period last year, these numbers stood at 14,264 and 7,646 respectively. Of the total addition during the quarter, freshers constituted the major chunk, with laterals at 2,318.
SD Shibulal, CEO and managing director, Infosys, said, ?Of the total 45,000, we have already hired close to 26,000 people. So the number of people to be hired is not much for the next two quarters.?
Infosys, which was struggling with its attrition rate in the last few quarters, witnessed a marginal decrease during the September quarter. On a twelve-month trailing basis, rates were down to 15.6% compared to 15.8% in the previous quarter and 17.1% in the year ago period.
?Attrition has marginally come down in absolute terms. We are making constant effort to curtail our attrition rate by introducing various measures and engaging our employees in different programmes. There are no changes in our hikes and promotions cycles,? said Shibulal.
In the previous quarter Infosys had exceeded its guided recruitment number of 6,500, with gross hiring close to 10,000 for the period, in anticipation of business growth. The company had stated that it was strategically strengthening its bench in a manner that would give enough head room to achieve the guided year-on-year revenue growth target of 17.1% – 19.1% in FY12. While this move had impacted utilisation rates, which were at 74.9% in the June quarter, the company managed to improve to 77.3% this quarter.
According to Infosys management, there was no change expected in the lateral to freshers ratio, which would be maintained at 25-30% laterals and 70-75% freshers. During the quarter, 23,000 campus offers were made for freshers, who were likely to come on board next fiscal. Currently, the company has a total workforce of 1,41,822 employees, 40,000 of which are stationed outside India. The management also said that 86% of its US recruits this quarter were not visa dependent.
To focus on non-monetary opportunities for employees, Infosys recently launched two new programmes to groom its female employees for leadership roles, considering that its top management was almost entirely male dominated. It also started monitoring health of employees more closely.