Source | telecom-economictimes-indiatimes-com.cdn.ampproject.org | Ayan Pramanik | Anandi Chandrashekhar
Bengaluru | Mumbai: India’s top four software services providers – Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, HCL Technologies and Wipro – have seen their headcount reduce by a net 9,100 employees between April and June quarter, according to their quarterly results disclosures.
This trend is likely to continue throughout the year, analysts said.
In the same period last year, the four companies hired 22,622 people, expecting faster growth from clients in the US and Europe.
These four software services exporters account for over one-third of India’s software exports of $147 billion and employ more than a million professionals, a fourth of the country’s total IT workforce.
Hiring firms said the trend will continue on the back of an increased push towards performance-based exits. “We expect to see similar trends over the next three quarters this year,” said Kamal Karanth, cofounder of Xpheno, a specialist staffing firm.
IT firms will also prefer people with specialised skill sets, while hiring of freshers could be made more stringent to ensure intake of better-quality candidates, experts said. Aditya Mishra, the chief executive of CIEL HR Services, said there could be three trends in hiring and reduction of headcount across IT services companies in the year ahead.
Performance-based review and reduction in bench strength will continue and will overtake that of last year as companies look for more levers to strengthen margins, he said.
