With companies across the world spending more on technology as the world recovers from a deep recession, Indian IT players are stepping on the gas. Infosys, the country?s second-largest IT exporter plans to recruit 30,000 employees this year, and has restructured its HR practices. The 18-month restructuring will also set a trend for the industry, said Mohandas Pai, HR chief, Infosys.
The Infosys Role and Career Enhancement programme (iRace), did leave some employees disgruntled ? many of them were demoted for failing to meet stringent criteria. Pai said these issues will soon be behind the company. ?We have promoted 7,500 people based on the programme. And out of the 4,500 people impacted by the iRace and demoted previously, 2,500 have met the criteria and have been promoted effective April 1. The rest 2,000 will be promoted by October 2010 as and when they meet the benchmark,?Pai said.
He admitted there is some war for talent now, but the market is not competitive as it was three to four years ago. ?But good talent is always in short supply,?he said, adding Infosys has enough ?employable? people to ride the recovery. ?Yes; among all companies, we have the best lot. About 7,000-8,000 people are undergoing training and 2,000-3,000 are in between projects. We have enough people to handle growth. That?s why we grew more than what we budgeted for in the last two quarters,?he said.
The firm has made 19,000 campus offers for the year already. Lateral recruits would total 6,000 and the company plans to add about 2,000 in places like China, Philippines, Europe and the US. Infosys will be hiring across verticals. The company will spend about $134 million this year on wage hikes and promotions. ?We had 7,500 promotions effective April 1, 2010. On an average, we are giving about 14% pay hikes at middle and junior levels and 10% at the senior level, effective July 1, 2010. Onshore, the hike will be around 2%-3%,?the HR chief said.
With all IT companies in a hiring mode, will there be a rise in attrition levels? Pai believes it could moderate. ?We had 13.4% attrition in the fourth quarter. Of this, 10.4% was voluntary. Attrition is up by 2% compared to the previous quarters. However, we still have the lowest attrition in the industry. We think attrition will stabilise and come down in the next quarters. In the first quarter, it might go up as normally people opt for higher education like MTech and MBA courses, but should come down from the second quarter onwards,?he said.