High attrition rates return to plague Indian IT industry
Notwithstanding the financial and other benefits offered by the companies to retain their employees, NASSCOM – the nodal body for the IT and ITeS industry in India – is of the view that country’s information and technology sector is struggling to tackle the high rate of attrition plaguing them once again.
An industry-related news website quotes the NASSCOM chairman Som Mittal as saying that in consequence of the recent economic slump, the workforce of the IT industry rather skeletal, but with the recession over, the industry has been witnessing a surge in hiring with almost everyone recruiting laterally. Consequently, this has given rise to widespread attrition that is now haunting the IT and ITeS players in India.
Substantiating his view, Mittal said that even a few months back, the attrition rate in the industry was confined to single digits, but it is growing alarmingly now. He said that the last time he took stock of the attrition rate, it stood at around 16 per cent, adding that presently this rate may be rising steadily conditional on the city where the business is located.
Quoting statistics, the NASSCOM chairman said that Infosys Technologies was one of the worst sufferers of the rising attrition rate. According to him, the attrition rate at Infosys – India’s second largest IT service provider in terms of export revenues – had gone up to 13.4 per cent during the 2009-2010 fiscal from just 11.1 per cent during the previous fiscal year. At the same time, Mittal pointed out that, as on March 31, 2010, the attrition rate at Tata Consultancy Service (TCS), the largest software service provider in the country, continued to be constant at 11.8 per cent.
According to the NASSCOM chief, the requirement for manpower has increased manifold with the growing demand for IT and ITeS services worldwide. This has virtually created a big challenge for the HR managers in the IT industry. He suggested that in such a situation the IT and ITeS firms ought to take on fresher graduates from technical institutes and train them to fulfill the void due to attrition. Such an approach will help the tech firms in meeting their manpower requirements in the long run, Mittal hoped.
At the same time, Mittal pointed out that attrition has its advantages too, as it opened up new employment opportunities together with incentives for job seekers since the companies are making an all-out endeavor to bring together the best talents available as well as keep hold of the vital resources on hand. Stating that the leading IT firms in India have already initiated hiring large number of talents, Mittal said that while TCS plans to recruit around 30,000 employees during the current year, Infosys too said it will take on 30,000 new employees, among which 2,000 will be from abroad. Meanwhile, Wipro, the country’s third largest IT exporter, has announced that its hiring plans will depend on the volume of work and demand for its services.