Infosys to trim hiring this fiscal as it looks to cut down operational costs

Reeling under flat revenue growth and bleak outlook, Indian IT giant Infosys will go slow on hiring this fiscal (2013-14) to cut down operational cost and minimise bench strength, an official said Friday.

"We will go to campuses for hiring as and when required. Though freshers account for about 70 percent of our hiring, we will look for lateral hiring for the remaining 30 percent internally through promotions as well as from the industry in new areas such as infrastructure, cloud, mobility and consultancy," Infosys chief executive S.D. Shibulal told reporters.

Unlike in previous years when the global software major was on a hiring spree every quarter, lower utilisation rates, increasing bench strength and modest revenue growth of 6-10 percent for this fiscal (FY 2014) have forced it to defer giving appointment letters or joining dates to many of those offered jobs in 2012.

"About 10,000 engineers will join the company this fiscal, including 5,000 who were given offer letters last fiscal. We will also consider doing just-in-time hiring during the year depending on the number of projects and their size. We will, however, maintain the 70:30 ratio of fresh and lateral hiring this year too," Shibulal asserted.

Though the company hired 8,990 people in fourth quarter (January-March) of last fiscal (FY 2013), net addition was only 1,059, as 7,931 employees left in the same period, taking the total number of employees to 156,688 by March 31.

On annualised basis, the company hired 37,036 people last fiscal as against 45,605 in previous fiscal (2011-12).

With 30,342 people leaving in FY 2013 as against 26,431 in FY 2012, net addition was 6,694 last fiscal compared to 19,174 previous fiscal, resulting in attrition going up to 16.3 percent from 14.7 percent in the corresponding year.