A demand-led robust recovery is underway in the $60-billion Indian IT industry. Not surprising then that a host of mid-size companies, which faced the brunt of contracting western markets in 2008-09, have gone on a hiring overdrive of late. Though IT biggies like TCS, Infosys and Wipro flagged off the end of slowdown earlier this year and began hiring in big numbers, it?s only now that middle-rung players like Hexaware Technologies, L&T Infotech, Steria and KPIT Cummins have joined the recruitment bandwagon.
Interestingly, over two-thirds of all recruitment by these mid-size companies are lateral hires, typically with 3-5 years work experience. Hexaware, which employs 6,100-odd people, says it hired as many as 900 people in July and August. ?We would hire another 1,200 by December as (we see more demand for) projects from North America. We also have 500 open positions right now,? says chief people officer Deependra Chumble. The company is looking for special skillsets like Java, enterprise resource planning (ERP ), .Net et al.
Leading HR firm Ma Foi Randstad director & president E Balaji captures the picture: ?Mid-size companies hired freshers last year and are now looking at talent with specific skills to support their growth. Moreover, the first wave of hiring was in big companies and now we see mid-size companies playing their cards right.?
Kicked by its expansion plans in India, Capgemini, the Paris-based IT services and consulting company, has a gameplan to hire 17,000 people in India this year, out of which 10,000 have already been absorbed. The company currently has 26,000 employees in the country. ?Strengthened by the marked increase in bookings, the group will enjoy a return to growth in the second half of the year. We have now relaunched a dynamic recruitment policy in order to satisfy new expectations of our clients,? says Paul Hermelin, CEO, Capgemini Group. Steria, a European IT firm with 5,500 employees in India, is also looking at expanding and doubling headcount here in the next two years, according to India CEO Mukesh Aghi.
Driven by 36% revenue growth in the recent quarter, Sapient, a global IT services firm with 5,000 employees in India, aims to hire another 3,000 by 2011 end. The company recently announced hiring 1,500 people in Bangalore. ?We see an inclination towards lateral hiring but would like to balance the level between freshers and experienced employees in future as we want to train people and build capability, apart from hiring special expertise,? says Sapient-India managing director Karandeep Singh.
L&T Infotech, the technology arm of engineering giant Larsen & Toubro, plans to add another 1,000 to its current strength of 12,900 by March 2011. ?The hiring trend had already started in January this year and we have hired 3,000 people till now. However, I feel that the worst in terms of attrition is over and the pre-2008 levels of attrition will be back soon,? says CEO Sudip Banerjee.
Joining the peers, KPIT Cummins, a 5,400 employee-strong IT firm, too is looking at hiring 1,620 this year. ?We will increase our headcount by 30% every year till 2013. At present, 70% of our recruitment is lateral hiring which is basically for the middle-level management like tech leaders, design experts and architects,? says Sumedha Nashikkar, head (human resources), KPIT Cummins Infosystems.