Published & Updated as on - 2010-04-26
NEW
DELHI: IT giants Infosys, TCS and Wipro hired over 20,000 employees in the January-March
quarter, with improving business conditions propelling their recruitment plans.
According
to human resources experts, IT and IT-enabled services are expected to see a
huge jump in hiring this year and major companies in the sector have already
set the pace.
The three IT companies put together have made
net additions of 20,014 employees (taking into account attrition) in the
January-March quarter.
IT giant Infosys hired as many as
9,313 employees in the quarter, but the net addition after taking into account
attrition was 3,914, according to the company's financial statement for the
period.
The hiring increased the total workforce of the
company and its subsidiaries to 1,13,796 employees at the end of March this
year.
Another IT major Tata Consultancy Services took on
board a net 10,775 employees in the last quarter of 2009-10 fiscal. TCS' total
employee strength has soared to 1,60,429 at the end of the last fiscal.
The
hiring momentum picked up from the third quarter of the last fiscal, when TCS
had made 7,692 net additions, compared with just 320 recruitments in the
previous quarter.
Besides, Wipro made net additions of 5,325
employees in the Q4 FY10, taking its total strength to 1,08,071.
According
to a recent survey by staffing firm Team Lease, Indian companies are
increasingly upbeat about their hiring plans across almost all sectors in
April-June period this year, led by an improving business outlook.
HR
experts predict companies in the IT & ITes sector would hire 1,50,000 professionals
in the fiscal year 2011.
Source: ET 26/4/10
Wipro
promises 100% variable pay
BANGALORE: Wipro’s
8% wage hike appears to pale in comparison to its peers’ hikes, but the company
is thinking of alternative ways to compensate its employees, in what is seen as
a scramble to reduce attrition that soared to 17% in January-March.
“Just
8% compensation (increase) is not the game. The game has to be much wider,”
Suresh Vaswani, joint chief executive, told ET. “People are big on our agenda.
People attrition is a top concern for us. Compensation has to reflect the
market situation and we will never compromise on that.”
Bellwether
Infosys Technologies gave a 14% average wage hike from April 1, and Tata
Consultancy Services 13%, which was announced earlier this month. Wipro has
promised its staff a 100% variable pay for this year, which in other years is
withheld if employees fail to meet 80% of the assigned target.
“This is an unusual year, and that is why we are talking of a fixed variable,”
Pratik Kumar, head of human resources, told ET. The objective is to relieve
staff of target pressure and perform optimally, he added.
Of
course, given this is a year of fast growth for the technology outsourcing
sector, the move to pay entire variable may prove to be a smart one, as larger
peer Tata Consultancy Services gave 125% variable pay in the just-ended
quarter.
The move also hedges Wipro against future
volatility as a significant part of the 8% wage hike given in February was in
the form of an assured variable for this year, Suresh Senapaty, chief executive
officer, said. Around 16% of the company’s wage bill of Rs 2,333 crore
(January-March) is variable as 10-35% of employees salaries are paid based on
targets depending on their seniority.
Wipro is also planning
a policy to include engineers in bonus reward programmes. So far, sales staff
alone gets bonuses for bagging a project. But delivery is integrally dependent
on engineers who execute outsourcing projects.
“Without that
program manager, you would not have survived,” Mr Vaswani said. “Why are only
the sales people getting the bonuses, why are the delivery people not getting
if they do a fantastic job of execution?”
Software engineers
working on large and complex outsourcing projects for customers such as British
Petroleum will now become eligible for the new incentive programme, Mr Kumar
added. The incentives will be linked to profitability of a project and the
savings generated “would become part of a kitty to be shared as bonus by the
team members”, Mr Kumar said.
Compensation will also rise
mid-year, along with promotions that will be decided in the next 3-4 months, Mr
Kumar said. “Every year, 15-20% get promotions,” he added. Wipro may also look
at increasing the levels within the organisation to give faster promotions,
particularly to best-performing individuals.
Source: ET
24/4/10
Infinite Computer to hire up to 1,000
people in next 6-9 mnths
NEW DELHI: Infinite
Computer Solutions plans to hire 500 to 1,000 employees in the next six to nine
months, as part of its strategic alliance with global on-demand services
company iYogi.
"We will be hiring 500-1,000 employees
in the next six to nine months months for setting up a services desk to enhance
iYogi's global remote technology support services," Infinite Computer
Solutions Managing Director Upinder Zutshi told PTI.
"We
have already set up a separate facility in Bengaluru with 400 seats which would
be increased as we hire more people. We have already taken on board around 250
people so far," Zutshi said.
The company would hire
staff between one to eight years of experience.
Infinite, a
global service provider of infrastructure management services got listed on the
bourses in February.
Earlier this week, Infinite Computer
had announced entering into a three-year agreement with Infinite's
infrastructure services group to provide technical support services on iYogi's
global delivery platform, iMantra.
Infinite would leverage
iMantra, in order to seamlessly extend support to iYogi's customers. iYogi
offers personalized computer support for consumers and small businesses across
the US, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia.
The company has
also worked previously with large enterprises as a services provider for Remote
Infrastructure Management.
"This alliance positions us
to deliver support to the consumers through a partnership model with iYogi's,
which is experiencing rapid growth and success through a unique
direct-to-consumer model that addresses the huge demand for superior technical
support services," Zutshi said.
Infinite Computer
Solutions is a global service provider of infrastructure management services,
intellectual property (IP) leveraged solutions and IT Services, focused on
telecom, media, technology and other industries.
Source: ET
25/4/10
HCL Tech to focus on hiring freshers,
non-linear growth
NEW DELHI: IT company HCL
Technologies plans to hire more freshers in future and eyes increasing revenue
from non-linear growth.
India's fifth largest software
exporter announced a 78 per cent rise in its net income at USD 77 million on a yearly
basis backed by 13 new deals, as the economic recovery slowly takes root.
However,
rupee appreciation and a loss-making BPO unit pose challenges to the IT
company, which will effect a wage hike in July and hire 5,000 freshers this
year adding to costs.
"Exchange rate volatility, wage
hike, hiring are continued processes in IT business and one has to live with
such issues. The company has taken various steps to achieve growth even when
companies were struggling under recession.
"We have
taken up non-linear growth model for some of our projects and this has fetched
12 per cent of our revenue. This is the first time we are announcing this. Of
course over a period time it (percentage of revenue from non-linear growth)
will increase," HCL Tech CFO Anil Chanana told PTI.
Non
linear growth is the latest buzzword in the Indian software sector, aimed at
pruning down manpower-related HR costs. Under such a model, IT companies don't
get paid based on the number of people used on a project but depending on the
output.
"We have been doing more of lateral hiring than
just freshers... Of course the lateral hiring is costly. However, going
forward, we have decided to rely more on freshers, train them and use them. So
we will be increasingly using freshers in our business," Chanana said.
Posting
robust results for the March quarter, the company has a net debt position of
USD 104 million as on March 2010. It generated USD 250 million cash in the
first nine months of 2009-10 against USD 200 million in the previous year.
The
company's hedges are at USD 468 million. In addition we have foreign currency
loan on our balance sheet worth USD 300 million, which acts as a natural hedge,
said Chanana.
This hedge position of USD 468 million is
enough cover for the next two quarters. These were taken three years back and
will get utilised over a period of time. Significant portions of this will get
utilised in the April-June and July-September quarters, Chanana said.
Source:
ET 25/4/10
Indian cos' hiring activity picks
up 1.5 pc in March
NEW DELHI: India Inc's
hiring activity picked up 1.5 per cent in March, led by IT-enabled services,
insurance and auto sectors, a report by job portal naukri.com has said.
A
job portal’s monthly Job Speak survey reflected renewed optimism among recruiters,
with the new job index moving up to 962 in March compared to 947 in February.
The
portal takes into account not only the jobs posted online by its clients but
also those made by them with the help of the website's tele-calling team.
"The
hiring intentions of companies in most industry sectors seem to be moving in a
positive direction as reflected by the consecutively upward moving Job index in
the first quarter of 2010. It seems 'cautious optimism' among employers has
given way to definite optimism," said Sumeet Singh, the National Head
(Marketing and Communication) of Info Edge, which owns the website.
Hiring
in ITeS and insurance sectors have seen maximum movement with the index moving
up by 13 per cent and 15 per cent respectively in March over the last month.
Recruitment
in auto sector moved up by 8 per cent and in pharma sector by 7 per cent in
March, the report said.
Professionals in production, banking
and HR also witnessed an increase in hiring by 8 to 12 per cent in March over
February, the report said.
Overall, the index seems to be
moving in a robust manner with hiring moving up across all industry verticals,
functional areas and cities.
Among cities, Delhi has emerged
as the most bullish on hiring, with the city-wise job index moving up 13 per
cent over the last month.
Source: ET 15/4/10
Saudi
is top destination for expatriate jobs in Gulf
DUBAI:
Expatriates are more likely to secure a new job in Saudi Arabia than in any
other country in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, a survey has found.
According
to the latest data revealed by GulfTalent.com, the number of expats employed in
the kingdom rose by 2.4 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2009.
Qatar
and Oman also saw increases over the same period while Bahrain, the UAE and
Kuwait saw a drop in the number of expatriate employees, with declines of 7.7
per cent, 4.2 per cent and 2.8 per cent respectively.
The
company compiled the results, based on actual staff recruitment, after speaking
to 11,000 managers across the region.
"Interviews with
hiring managers found that the increased demand for staff in Saudi Arabia and
Qatar was being satisfied by a combination of new recruitment, as well as staff
relocations within the region, with companies moving large numbers of their
employees from slower markets such as the UAE," the company said in a
statement.
The region's logistics jobs increased by 3 per
cent, while retail employment saw a rise of 2.6 per cent, the firm said.
However,
positions in real estate and the oil and gas industry saw declines of 7.8 per
cent and 4.7 per cent respectively.
The research found that
among GCC's expat workers, Western nationals were most likely to return home if
they lost their jobs, with 55 per cent doing so, compared to 37 per cent of
Asians and 18 per cent of Arabs.
Qatar had the highest
number of expats leaving the country to return home at 54 per cent, in part due
to its strict sponsorship laws, the statement said.
The UAE
had the highest proportion of unemployed expats choosing to remain in the country
to look for new employment.
This reflected "both the
challenging employment environment as well as the popularity of the country
with expatriates," the statement said.
Source: ET 20/4/10
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