Infosys Technologies may not dole out huge wage hikes in FY12 as price push in the software industry has remained sporadic.

?There won?t be a large wage hike as there is only volume growth in the industry but not a price push,? said Mohandas Pai, Board member and HR chief, Infosys. ?While Pai did not indicate the exact nature of the hikes at the firm next year, he said a wage hike in the range of 8-10% in FY12 for the overall IT industry is possible.

Infosys, in FY11, had given out one of the highest hikes in the industry — 17% on an average –?to retain talent.??For people with less than six years of experience, the average hike was 20%. The company offered promotions in April and October?and a total of 15,000 people were promoted.

Pai said that high attrition rate, which was a major concern for the company over the past two quarters, appeared to be fading away. Thanks to the promotions, salary hikes and employee engagement programme, the attrition rate for the IT bellwether has dropped to 13.8% during the December quarter compared to 17.4% in the September quarter. ?

?Our attrition has come down because we are giving a lot of career options. The employee engagement programme has shown good results. Employee referrals are at an all time high. Lateral hiring was a record this quarter,? said Pai. During the December quarter, Infosys added 5,500 laterals of which 61% was from employee referrals.

During the third quarter, 3,561 people left Infosys Technologies compared to 4,200 people in the previous quarter.

Infosys has?also restructured its HR practices ? an 18 month effort, called the Infosys Role and Career Enhancement programme? (iRace).? The restructuring programme left some employees disgruntled as many of them had been demoted for failing to meet certain criteria.

However, the company said people now have understood the role of iRace and how it helped individuals map their career growth. ?Now we are seeing a lot of positive comments on iRace. People have realised its role,? said Nandita Gurjar, senior vice president and global head of HR at Infosys.?