Indian technology major Wipro has announced to hire as many as 17,000 freshers a jump of about 5,000 from the earlier estimates of 12,000 as demand outstrips supply.
The company has already hired 8,100 freshers in the second quarter making it a record, pushing up the total campus intake to 10,000 in the first half of the fiscal.
Another 7,000 are likely to join in the next six months, Saurabh Govil, president and chief human resources officer, said. Wipro has, on a net basis, added 23,653 people between April and September, compared to 2,357 in the same period last year.
TCS, in comparison, said it will hire 75,000 freshers, up from its previous estimate of 40,000.
“We will have to make sure the supply side is not a constraint on demand but will have to keep a close focus to drive this agenda,” said Govil alluding to the voluntary attrition levels, which shot up to 20.5% from 15.5% sequentially.
AT present all IT and technology companies are grappling with such high numbers of people leaving for new jobs that promise a significant hike in salary along with other benefits. In many cases, engineers have more than two offers, giving them substantial leverage to bargain hard to drive up their pay package. For Wipro, the drop-out rate for lateral hires is as high as 50%.
“Attrition will be on a heightened level for the next two to three quarters. Ideally, we should be much lesser but given the opportunities out there and the skill gap in the demand and supply side it will not come down immediately,” Govil said.
Another factor that Govil believes is accentuating this problem is remote working. “Given the pandemic, many people have not been to the office at all, nor have they met their managers. They are thus not engaged and thus have no association with the company which is also a challenge.”
The company’s headcount was 221,365 at the end of September. About 85% of its employees have got at least one Covid vaccine shot and 50% are fully vaccinated. It expects more employees across grades to return to the office from January.
