It?s not quite the gloom of 2009 yet, but the Indian IT industry could end up hiring far fewer employees this financial year than expected earlier. Just a few months back, the industry ? one of the biggest employers in the country ? was expected to add about three lakh to its workforce in 2011-12. However, human resources contractors said that faced by economic uncertainty in its primary revenue geographies, the US and Europe, the industry will now end up hiring 25-30% less.
External recruitment agencies, who have a good view of the hiring workflows of companies, said many IT firms have gone cautious on lateral hiring while a few MNCs have put a blanket freeze on senior-level hiring. Openings are taking much longer to close as nervous companies are re-assessing the demand-supply scenario.
Recruitment firms FE spoke to said Cisco, Dell and Juniper Networks have frozen hiring. While Cisco confirmed a freeze and is eliminating positions, Dell and Juniper denied any such move. IBM India, sources said, have slowed down hiring as well. The firm did not respond to this newspaper’s query.
?The IT industry may end up hiring 25% less than what was projected at the beginning of the year. There is a dip in lateral hiring that forms about 45% of a big company?s employee mix. Senior-level hiring could be 10-15% of the mix and projections for this category are not bright,? Surabhi Mathur Gandhi of Teamlease, a HR services company, said.
Other HR consultants predict worse. BS Murthy, CEO of management search firm Leadership Capital said there was a blanket freeze in place at several multinationals. ?Their business has not expanded as anticipated. Some businesses like cloud has not taken off. The hiring freeze could now extend to Indian IT service providers as well,? he noted. His firm has taken a 10% hit in overall business compared to the last two quarters with MNCs freezing the hire of vice presidents, general managers and directors. Sanjay Shelvankar, CEO of human capital management consulting firm Scalene Works, said there were no sudden breaks like in 2008-09 but companies have gone cautious about lateral hiring. Kris Laxmikant of Head Hunters, a firm that places senior and middle-level managers, said hiring is going slow among Indian companies too. ?Six months back, there was a lot of optimism in boardrooms. Big-time hiring was much easier. Now, everybody is reassessing requirements. Offers are being kept on hold. The decision to close an opportunity is taking longer. There is a hiring slowdown across American, Japanese, Chinese and Indian IT firms,? he noted.
