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Wipro hires 1270 techies, but 517 leave

Fakir Chand in Bangalore

At a time when the Indian software sector is seeing a rebound and more hiring, thanks to increasing outsourcing or IT spending, the Bangalore-based Wipro Technologies saw as many as 517 techies leaving the blue-chip company even as it recruited more than a thousand people during the second quarter of the current fiscal (2002-03).

Disclosing these startling figures in Bangalore on Friday, Wipro vice-chairman and CEO Vivek Paul said of the 517 software engineers who had left the company in the quarter under reference, around 317 were asked to leave for failing to meet its performance benchmarks, and the remaining 200 left on their own for better prospects or in pursuit of professional advancement.

"During July-September 2002 quarter, Wipro Technologies had hired 1270 engineers, but 517 have left in the same period, leaving a net addition of 753 employees to the company," Paul stated in a statement.

As a result, the total number of employees in the flagship company of Wipro Corporation stood at 11,298 by the end of September 30, 2002.

Paul told rediff.com that the new recruits included many freshers who were hired at campus level during the last fiscal (2001-02), but their joining letters were deferred due to the slump in the IT industry.

"We have also cleared benching and stepped up our utilisation rates to 68.5 per cent in view of a volume growth in the business during the second quarter," Paul added.

Wipro chairman Azim Premji termed the exit of 317 techies as an involuntary attrition and clarified that they were neither fired nor laid-off.

"After their training and probation period, they were asked to leave the company as their performance was not up to the benchmark, measured at Six Sigma level," Premji affirmed.

Asked about the company's hiring drive for the third quarter (October-December) of the current fiscal, Paul said fresh recruitments would be as per our guidance and market requirements.

"Our hiring policy is guided by neither volume nor revenue growth, but by business opportunities and immediate requirements. Hence, we will continue to hire but cautiously," Paul asserted.

In this context, it may be recalled that Wipro's neighbour and another global Indian IT company, Infosys, has hired a record 1,806 engineers during the same quarter in line with its robust growth and upward guidance for the two remaining quarters of the current fiscal year.

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