Infosys Ltd will not reconsider its recruitment plan for this financial year. In fact, the information technology giant is set to exceed the earlier plan of hiring 45,000, according to its Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Mr S.D. Shibulal.
“We had planned to recruit 45,000 this year but I think we will end up at 47,000 gross. We have given 20,000 offers for next year,” he told analysts while discussing the company's financial results for the third quarter ended December 31, 2011.
All the people who were given offer letters last year are joining the company now, he said.
Well-prepared
Mr Shibulal said that unless there is a catastrophe, things would start happening.
Then, Infosys is well positioned with those strategic directions and with its ‘Building Tomorrow's Enterprise' framework. “So, we believe that the decisions will really favour us, as and when it [spending] happens,” he said.
For the third quarter ended December 2011, Infosys added 9,655 employees (gross), which were more than the target of 8,000, said Mr V. Balakrishnan, Chief Financial Officer of Infosys.
Whatever the company hires from October it is for next year because the company should have a lead time of around six months to train new employees – mostly from college campus.
Only after that, the employees become billable. The attrition level too has come down to 15.4 per cent for the quarter, he said.
Employee utilisation
Mr Shibulal said that it was quite comfortable with the employee utilisation between 76 per cent and 80 per cent. Infosys had operated in that bracket even before, even slightly lower.
According to Mr Balakrishnan, the peak of the utilisation in some years even went to 81 per cent or 82 per cent.
“We want to retain that flexibility because if we are looking at an opportunity to grow, we need that capacity in the system. When the growth comes we do not blink.”
Wage hike
On wage increase for employees next year, Mr Balakrishnan said that it was too early to decide.
“We will get a better view in April. But looking at the situation today, we believe the wage increase for next year in offshore [locations] could be in the high single digit, not more than that.”
Wage is a function of supply and demand. This year, Infosys gave 10-13 per cent increase in offshore wages, he said.