Wipro to increase campus hiring to 17,000 this year

BENGALURU: Wipro is increasing its fresh graduate

hiring

for this year to 17,000 from the earlier estimated 12,000 as companies continue to hire thousands from engineering campuses in an unprecedented year where demand outstrips supply.

The company 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 will 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 the 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.

All IT and technology companies have been 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,” added Govil.

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.

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