Indian IT firms lift lid on hiring

For the whole of the last financial year, Indian IT companies had canned hiring. They're back in action now and majors like Infosys Technologies and Wipro are understood to have begun approaching engineering and management institutes, besides head hunting companies to add to their rolls.

IT companies hire an average of 50 students each from engineering campuses and 20 students from management institutes.

Headhunters confirm that many of the IT companies have given them mandates for hiring over the next couple of quarters. "We have seen an uptick in the hiring patterns among the IT firms. We ourselves have received good mandates from firms like Infosys and others.

As of now, we have 13-14 mandates. The uptick started from August and has gone strong in September. The demand is increasing as these firms are also diversifying in newer geographies and within India, for which they will need people," said Venkat Subramaniam, sourcing partner of TMI Network.

In the case of Infosys, the company said that these 2,000 would be lateral (experienced people). The company said this would help it to react faster once clients were ready to increase their IT spend.

"Close to 200 people will be added in the sales and marketing segment by the end of this fiscal," said Subhash Dhar, senior VP, communications, media and entertainment, global sales, alliances and marketing.

Firms like Accenture have also approached headhunters for large scale recruitment. A senior HR consultant, who did not wish to be named, said India's largest IT firm Tata Consultancy Services, too, plans to meet some of the leading HR firms after it announces the second quarter results.

The premier Indian Institutes of Management and Indian Institutes of Technology that Business Standard reporters spoke to confirmed that prominent IT firms have approached them for placements.

"The scene is good. Some IT firms have approached us and pre-placement offers are still flowing in, though they have not confirmed the numbers of hiring so far," said Professor Prafulla Agnihotri, chairman, career development and placement, IIM Calcutta. He, however, refused to divulge any names.

The reasons are varied. Sanjeev Bikchandani, managing director & CEO of InfoEdge (promoter of Naukri.com), points out that "replacement hiring is definitely happening in the IT sector. So, it's mainly lateral hiring. Demand-led hiring is still a quarter or two away. However, it is early days to put any number to this hiring".

An HR consultant added, on the condition of anonymity, that companies will start hiring now as they are reaching the end of the year. This is when clients will also finalise budgets, besides the fact that Indian IT groups are also gearing up their global centres.

"We have seen that on an average, every month firms are hiring 30-40 people in the senior and mid-management level," he says.

The Manpower Employment Outlook Survey for the services industry, which includes IT, projects a 20-25 per cent increase in hiring. Cherian Kuruvila, director -- operations, Manpower India, explains: "Infosys' statement reflects the sentiment. Companies are expected to build a talent pool for upcoming projects as green shoots are visible."

The other reason for the increase in hiring, according to Ashok Reddy, managing director, TeamLease Services, is due to the voluntary movement that was almost nil last year due to market circumstances.

"Now with the market bouncing back, people have started moving. The fear of attrition will force companies to have a pool of people to replace outgoing employees. Before August we used to have on an average 100 openings, which in the August-September period has gone up to 400," he added.

The momentum of this trend will also imply an increase in salary hikes. "The IT sector is showing improved sentiments with increases expected to leap by a few percentage points next year, after a long-lasting lull of near 0 per cent increase this year," said Gangapriya Chakraverti, India leader of Mercer's information product solutions business.

However, there are a few who are still being cautious. Rakesh Malik, practice leader for globalisation and business transformation practice at Hewitt Associates, reasons: "It's too early to say that broadbase hiring will be back in IT. It could be that some particular skills were lacking in Infosys' employee pool, for which the company is hiring 2,000 people.

"The deal flow in the industry is not back to normalcy yet, expecting hiring of this scale would be too early." He avers he hasn't seen much increase in hiring in the IT space. It's just that the people who had been put on bench or virtual bench are being brought back.