December 21, 2021
December 21, 2021
As companies worldwide adopt new digital modes of running business post the COVID-19 pandemic, the demand for tech talent in India is set to soar in the New Year.
Long a favored location for offshore software development, the country will see the hiring plans of IT firms emboldened by the winter spread of the Omicron variant. Their projected remit will now focus on helping businesses chart their digital transformation, industry experts told the Economic Times. This will lead to a huge demand for professionals in digital, data and cyber security space, they said.
According to estimates by staffing specialist Xpheno, top 10 Indian IT service companies like Tata Consultancy Services, HCL Technologies, Tech Mahindra, Mindtree, Infosys, and Wipro will create 2,00,000 new jobs by the end of March 2022.
The report suggested that total hiring by these companies would rise to about half a million by end of this financial year, which will include an 18-23 percent attrition refill hiring.
In the second quarter of FY 2021, Wipro, TCS, Infosys and HCL Technologies added 50,000 employees, taking the hiring status to 1,02,517 people in the first six months of the quarter. The four tech giants hired more than a quarter of India’s total workforce.
Meanwhile, tech firms have seen a spike in attrition in the last two to three quarters. Infosys and Wipro have reported in excess of 20 percent attrition rates. By the end of this fiscal, attrition for full-time IT-BPM employees in India is likely to reach 24 percent as compared to 13 percent in 2021, data from staffing firm Teamlease showed.
The IT services sector nearly doubled its talent demand this year as compared to 2020, Kamal Karanth, co-founder, Xpheno, told the Economic Times, adding that the talent acquisition was stronger in the second half of 2021 with monthly active openings exceeding 110,000.
TCS, the country’s largest IT employer, will focus specially on acquiring talent in the digital skills space. The demand for tech talent is unlike any time the company has seen before, Girish Nandimath, global head, talent acquisition of TCS, told the media outlet.
Tech Mahindra is focusing on hiring at ‘the bottom of the pyramid’. The company is targeting fresh talent in tier-2 cities and the overseas markets alike, Harshvendra Soin, global chief people officer and head, marketing of Tech Mahindra said.
While Infosys refrained from commenting, HCL Technologies said it witnessed the highest net hiring number ever in its history in the last quarter at 11,135 people. “Given the bookings and the pipeline, the hiring numbers are auguring well for our business going forward,” an HCL Technologies spokesperson said.
According to Nitin Bhatt, technology sector leader of EY-India, there is huge demand for digital skills globally as companies are working on enhanced business scenarios using tech solutions. Companies are “open up to using more advanced technologies such as AI, ML and are willing to alter their business models for competitive advantage, productivity, cost savings and new and better customer experiences,” ET quoted Bhatt as saying.