IT hiring and upskilling activities across GSIs (global system integrators) are picking up from this year. While large or Tier-I GSIs are looking to upskill and bring on board graduates, who had been “benched”, for new projects, Tier-II GSIs continue to witness hiring. The global capability centres (GCCs) continue to be big employers with engineering and research & development GCCs (called ERD GCCs) growing 1.3x faster than before, says Vijay K Thadani, Vice Chairman and MD of NIIT Ltd.
According to Thadani, there are early signs of a pick up in hiring and head count on a q-o-q basis in Q2 (July – September). Outlook for H2 looks “better”, despite “moderate macro economic factors”.
“The overall pace (of hiring) remains moderate – with Tier-I GSIs now looking to upskill new entrants, who they had hired but had not used because of slowing contract wins. On the other hand, Tier-II GSIs are hiring all year round. And the GCCs continue to be bullish and open (shop) here,” Thadani told businessline during an interaction.
Employees benched
India has about 1,800 GCCs which employ close to 1.9 million people.
Thadani said, companies are now investing to get “graduates job ready”. There were several graduates in 2024 – numbers pegged at over 2.5 million – who were hired but were “benched” in the absence of projects.
In IT parlance, being benched refers to a state where employees are not assigned a project. They, however, continue to be paid.
Apart from GSIs and GCCs, private banks continue to focus on expanding their footprint to grow retail deposits. However, with lower attrition, pace of hiring in the segment is witnessing some moderation.
Identifying hiring trends
According to Thadani, the company had reworked its strategy in response to the challenging hiring environment and evolving market dynamics. In 2023, NIIT experienced a negative hiring scenario, with more lay, affecting part of the business.
“Since then we started looking at the trends and worked out a strategy that focused on Tier-II GSIs and GCCs and BFSI. We encountered success in all three (areas),” he said.
For Q2FY25, revenue stood at ₹91 crore, up 11 per cent y-o-y; with Profit After Tax at ₹12 crore – up over 50 per cent. The BFSI & other programmes contributed around 36 per cent of revenue (vs 34 per cent last year) at ₹33 crore; while revenue from tech programmes were at 64 per cent or ₹58 crore, up 7 per cent y-o-y.
Early career learners contribute around 48 per cent and pros around 52 per cent. In tech, senior employees drive numbers, while in BFSI it is the early career learners.