Infosys Technologies, To hire 40,000 in current year

Infosys Technologies, India's second-largest IT services company, has revised upwards its hiring estimate for the current financial year to 40,000 – up 11 per cent from the 36,000 projected earlier – as the company ramps up capacity to capitalise on emerging opportunities.

"We are revising our hiring plans, as we need enough bench strength to cash in new opportunities," T V Mohandas Pai, director (HR), said on Friday. The company will hire 11,000 people in the current quarter (October-December) as part of this plan, he added.

Infosys had an employee strength of 122,468 by the end of the second quarter, 16 per cent higher than the corresponding period last year. The company plans to reduce the utilisation rate to 77-79 per cent from 82 per cent as of now.

"We need to reduce the utilisation rate to have adequate bench strength for new projects," Pai said. On the attrition front, while 5,400 people left the organisation in the first quarter of this financial year, the number came down to 4200 in the second quarter — showing a decline of 22 per cent on aquarterly basis. "Attrition rate is expected to fall in the remaining two quarters of this financial year on the back of promotion opportunities for employees," Pai said. The company plans to promote 12,000 people in the remaining period of the year, he added.

However, the company pointed out that it would not have any impact on the operating margin, as the outgo had been factored in from the beginning of the year. "The total outgo for the company on the pay rise front due to promotions will be in the range of $78 million," Pai said.

Talking about onsite hiring, he said the company would hire around 1,000-1,500 people, out of the total 11,000 planned during the second half of this year. Infosys is also working on a 'talent management' programme to get feedback from employees for future policy making. "We are going to organise a talent workshop soon, which will have participation from all employees and they will give us feedback on present policies along with proposals for future enterprise," Pai added.