Wipro plans to offer single-digit salary hikes this year even as its attrition rates dropped 9 percentage points to 14 per cent.

Mr Pratik Kumar, Executive Vice-President, Human Resources, Wipro Ltd, said the company was committed to the ‘promise' it had made to its employees earlier. Wipro announces its annual increments in June every year.

Hiring mix

The company also changed its campus-lateral hiring mix during the year. “We tilted more towards fresher hiring although our overall hiring numbers would remain the same,” he said.

The reason for this is the company's lateral hiring favoured more niche and specialised skills. Therefore, the proportion of campus hiring would increase, he said. During fiscal 2011-12, Wipro (IT services) added about 13,585 employees taking the employee count to over 1.35 lakh.

Wipro's HR head rejected the suggestion that Wipro's hiring team would leverage on rival Infosys' no-pay hike announcement and subsequent expected attrition from that company.

Attrition rates

He said, “Wipro's talent acquisition strategy is built around skills and niche areas that the company wants and not linked to perceived vulnerability of a few players.”

The company would also visit fewer campuses this year as it was working towards increasing the yield from lesser number of colleges, he added.

Citing dipping attrition rates at the company – from 23 per cent at the beginning of fiscal 2011-12-14 per cent at the close of the year – Mr Kumar said that this was an indicator that the restructuring exercise impact had stabilised.

anjali@thehindu.co.in

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