Infosys, the country?s second largest IT exporter, has exceeded its guided recruitment number of 6,500 for the first quarter ended June, with gross hiring close to 10,000 for the period, in anticipation of business growth going forward, said Kris Gopalakrishnan, chief executive officer and managing director, Infosys.

?We had guided recruitment of 6,500, but 9,900 gross additions were made. Strengthening the bench in this manner is a strategic move. Considering the growth we are anticipating, we believe we need this capacity to capitalise on future opportunities,? said Gopalakrishnan.

However, the recruitment figures have taken a toll on the company?s employee utilisation percentages, which came down to 74.9% (excluding trainees), compared with 78.7% in the corresponding period last fiscal. Sequentially, utilisation fell from 75.2%.

?Utilisation has been low going by our own standards. We are typically comfortable with a utilisation of 78 to 80%. However, we expect these levels to pick up in the forthcoming quarters,? said SD Shibulal, chief operating officer of the company. ?

The company, which has a workforce of 1,33,560 employees, did not revise annual recruitment guidance of 45,000, as these high recruitment numbers were expected to even out through the following quarters.

With attrition shooting through the roof pan industry, Infosys reported rates of 15.8%, owing to a high number of employees leaving for higher studies, increased lateral hiring within the sector, and demand from other industries. However, on a 12-month trailing basis, rates were down compared with 17.8% in the previous quarter and has remained stable compared to the year ago period.

?Almost 30% of the employees who have left, comprised people going for higher studies, which is surprisingly high compared to previous years. We expect this to continue through the second quarter as well. Just good hikes are no longer enough for employee retention, who demand a lot more in terms of policies that impact their lives,? said Nandita Gurjar, senior vice-president and group head, human resources, Infosys.

During the quarter, the company gave hikes at an average of 10-12% across levels, which impacted margins by close to 300 BPS. It also gave 7,000 of the 11,000 planned promotions, with the rest likely to happen in October.

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 had also started monitoring health of employees more closely, and was looking at introducing policies that would allow employees to spend more time working from home. An interactive site similar to a social networking site for Infosys employees had also been launched a few months ago.

?Earlier, people had two days a month to work from home, but now we find that they want four. Employees are also looking at policies that will allow them time to take care of elderly members of the family, which we are trying to work out,? said Gurjar.

?As our workforce ages, their needs, and the methods for employee engagement changes. We now find that while it was enough to engage just the employees when they were younger, now, it is important to build policies that will engage their immediate family as well,? she added. According to her, HR leaders of IT industry would be looking at addressing the issue of hikes and incentives in the sector in the next Nasscom HR summit to be held in July.