eClerx Services, a BSE-listed knowledge process outsourcing firm, will hire 2,500 staffers this fiscal. As on June 30, 2014, the company had 7,549 employees on its rolls. “We are seeing a lot of ramp ups, especially from clients in telecom and financial services. I think we will finish the year with a headcount of about 9,500-10,000,” Chitra Padmanabhan, Principal at eClerx’s Resource Management Group, told BusinessLine .

eClerx has offices in Mumbai, Pune, Chandigarh, New York, Philadelphia, London and Singapore. The company is looking at either freshers or those with a year’s experience, added Padmanabhan.

Attrition, which is in the 30-55 per cent range, continues to remain a major challenge for the over $120-billion Indian back-office industry.

New HR model

Padmanabhan has introduced a new HR model to ensure lower attrition in its execution teams, which accounts for 80 per cent of its headcount.

“We have decided to move to tenure-based promotions for the execution level staffers. They will be promoted at fixed intervals as long as their performance does not fall beyond a certain threshold,” said Padmanabhan.

The move, said Padmanabhan, will help staffers stop worrying about their performance vis-à-vis their peers and promote a higher degree of collaboration. “We launched this model in April and early indications are that this is going to work,” she added. Attrition came down by 600 basis points to 24.6 per cent in the first quarter ended June 30.

For the June quarter, eClerx had recorded a 13.4 per cent dip in net profit to ₹53.4 crore while total income rose by 9 per cent to ₹218.3 crore.

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