BENGALURU: It’s a technologist’s market and IT firms are warming up to cool perks and cash-based incentives to retain talent as replacements may come at 20% higher costs. Top performers in HCL Technologies, for instance, might drive home a Mercedes Benz.
HCL CHRO Apparao VV said the proposal is with the board for approval. The company had given out 50 Mercedes Benz cars to top performers in 2013, but later discontinued the practice.
“Replacement hiring cost is 15-20% higher. Hence, we are actively participating in skilling our workforce. If you need a Java developer you will get them at the same price point. But a cloud professional can’t be hired at the same price point,” he said. HCL Technologies plans to hire 22,000 freshers in the current financial year, compared to 15,600 last year.
“HCL has a good retention package with a three-year cash incentive scheme which is 50-100% of the CTC every year. At least 10% of the critical talent in the leadership teams have benefited from it,” he said.
HCL’s IT services attrition on LTM (last 12 months) basis rose by 11.8% in the June quarter, compared to 9.9% in the quarter before. Apparao said Indian IT firms are also dealing with candidates backing out of job offers. “Reneging a job offer is very high today as prospective job-seekers are finding multiple job opportunities,” he said.
TCS CHRO Milind Lakkad said the overall job market is hot. "So, yes, there will be some impact on attrition. But it is part of our operating model, and we will manage that. I don’t think it will have an impact on any business parameter materially,” he said in a recent earnings call.
Infosys’ voluntary attrition, calculated this time on an LTM basis, rather than being quarterly annualised, rose sequentially to 13.9% in the first quarter, from 10.9%. Infosys COO UB Pravin Rao said given the high demand, attrition will probably be around this level for the next couple of quarters.
“There are two factors. One is that growth has come back in a big way after the first quarter. And the second, growth (in jobs) has largely been in India. Our onsite percentage is 24.3%; it was around 27% four quarters ago,” he said. Infosys has introduced skill tags that allow employees to establish their skill expertise in new-age/niche technology spaces.
Wipro’s voluntary attrition rose 340 basis points sequentially to 15.5%. “The dramatic shift to a remote working environment has made labour across all sectors and markets more mobile and liberated. Therefore, higher attrition has become a universal issue,” said Wipro CEO Thierry Delaporte.
Wipro CHRO Saurabh Govil said 10,000 promotions were given during the June quarter compared to 7,300 in the year-ago period. “We will hire 12,000 freshers this year and make 30,000 campus offers to be onboarded in the next financial year. About 22,000 people will join next year,” he said.
Govil said the company is offering skills-based bonuses to employees and about 10,000 of them have got it in the June quarter. “It forms 10%-20% of their salary.” He said a majority of the attrition is in the 2-5 years’ experience levels.
