For the first time in many quarters, software major Infosys’ net employee hiring in March quarter was higher than that of Tata Consultancy Services and Cognizant Technology Solutions.

The quarter also saw employee attrition for the Bengaluru-based software major decline significantly from a year-ago due to several initiatives, including wage increase.

Key metrics Net employee addition and lower attrition are key metrics that convey whether the company is on a growth trajectory.

Infosys’ attrition rate has been the highest among the top IT companies and much of the hiring in the recent quarter was back-filling of those positions, said an industry source.

Infosys is starting to recruit again after a few quarters of weak employee addition. Its CEO Vishal Sikka’s strategy is now in place and this is a positive sign that the company is executing on the strategy and that it is finding good traction amongst its client base, said Frederic Giron, VP & Research Director of the research firm Forrester based in Singapore.

Becoming a $20-billion company in 2020 will require much more than just adding employees. Even if Infosys was to continue to recruit at this pace, reaching $20 billion in revenues would mean a significant increase in its average revenue per head, he told BusinessLine .

Infosys has improved its employee engagement and participation through its SWAT team. It also announced 100 per cent bonus payouts in the second and third quarters.

Employee retention “I believe this has helped us retain good talent. Our employee attrition has been contained. We had 1,768 employee exits in January, 1,437 in February and 1,352 in March. This can be compared with 2,850 exits in May 2014 and 2,528 in July just prior to my joining,” Sikka told analysts while discussing the company’s fourth-quarter and annual results.

“We are transforming ourselves towards a much more of a performance-driven culture where we are continuously identifying and rewarding higher performance,” he said.

Rajiv Bansal, Chief Financial Officer, Infosys, said the company increased the average variable payout for employees to 86 per cent in the financial year 2015 from 64 per cent in 2014.

It also did mid-year wage hikes for many employees effective October 1.

The quarterly annualised attrition for Infosys declined to 13.4 per cent in fourth quarter, compared with 23.4 per cent in the first quarter.

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