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TCS, Wipro recast hiring plans

September 16th, 2008

AHMEDABAD: As the heat of global slowdown spreads, several players in the IT and ITeS sector have modified recruitment policies, keeping them in sync with the changing market conditions and their pockets.

The likes of TCS, Wipro and Keane are either going slow on recruitment or are hiring more number of trained hands.

“During 2008, recruitments in IT/ITeS sector has seen a fall of 20-22 per cent as compared to the same period last year. The players have become more cautious,” says Bangalore-based HR firm Ikya Human Capital Solutions chairman Marcel Parker.

“There is a delay in decision making. While most IT firms have deferred their hiring, some have postponed their training programmes. A few have opted for judicious just-in-time recruitment process,” Parker said.

TCS, which recruits about 18,000 employees every year has decided to make significant cuts in recruitment patterns to tide over the crisis. “This year we are not going for any mass recruitment. We have cut down on at least 20 per cent of the total recruitment,” said a senior HR official of TCS in Gujarat. “Our focus has largely been to hire more experienced candidates than go in for fresh recruits,” the official added.

Similarly, international IT firm, Keane is not just going slow on recruitments, but have also adopted a ‘just-in-time-approach’ on hiring. “Since the last three years, we used to hire 30-40 per cent more people than the previous year. But this year we are sticking to almost the same number of people we recruited last year,” said Keane India senior VP S G Raja Sekharan.

“Since January we have already made job offers to 3,000 students, which is in the range of what we had did last year. We do not want to make job offers and scale back (if market conditions deteriorate),” he said.

“The confidence level in the markets is low compared to the levels that existed three years back. It is very difficult to forecast where the markets are headed in the recent future,” Sekharan said.

IT-giant Wipro has introduced stringent ‘quality measures’ into their hiring pattern. “We have made our process even more stringent and brought in measures to ensure quality of hire. Innovative measures have been introduced including setting up a Talent Quality Group within Talent Acquisition,” said Wipro talent acquisition VP Pradeep Bahirwani.

In order to hire quality manpower, Wiro has also started campus hiring in US and UK. “We have pioneered programmes like Wipro Academy of Software Excellence (WASE) which helps graduates learn while they work on projects with us. We have an active campus programme in India and have also started campus hiring in US and UK,” he said.
Source:TOI

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