Bengaluru-based IT major Wipro is looking at multiple measures to retain employees as the demand for niche talents increases. These initiatives include promotions, salary hikes and skill-based bonuses for employees.
Thierry Delaporte, CEO, Wipro, said during the earnings call on April 15 that the company is fully prepared to win this war for talent, and has introduced several interventions to retain staff.
Attrition and talent war are clearly one of the key challenges facing IT firms that are looking at double-digit growth in FY22. To attract and retain talent all Indian IT firms are looking at multiple interventions.
Interventions to retain talent
After Wipro rolled out wage hikes in January 2021, employees are in for another hike in June 2021. Promotions are in offing as well. In October 2020, the company announced promotions for 80 percent of its employees effective December 2020.
“In addition, we are rolling out skill-based bonuses,” Delaporte said.
The bonuses will be given to employees who possess niche skills in new-age technologies such as cybersecurity, and cloud and also key domain skills. “These bonuses are for differentiated skills and hence targeted,” pointed Chief Human Resources Officer Saurabh Govil.
Hiring and growth
Wipro hired close to 18,000 employees in Q4 FY21. Its attrition, which was at 11 percent in Q3 FY21, increased to 12.1 percent in the fourth quarter. According to Govil, the company is expecting a higher uptick in attrition on the back of a strong demand environment and the need for talents in niche areas.
However, supply is not a constraint as the company has aggressive hiring plans in place, he added.
The company made a net addition of 15,000 people in FY21. It on-boarded close to 9000 freshers. The total employee count stood at 1.97 lakh at the end of March 31, 2021. Going by the company commentary, the numbers will higher in FY22 compared to last fiscal, though the numbers were not disclosed.
The company registered $2.15 billion in revenue for the quarter ending March 31, 2021, up 3.9 percent quarter-on-quarter. The company closed 12 large deals resulting in a total contract value of $1.4 billion in the quarter.
Delaporte shared that the company expects 11-13 percent year-on-year growth in Q1 FY22 in revenues. It has guided for 2-4 percent quarter-on-quarter growth.
What are its peers doing?
Its peer Infosys and TCS too have brought in measures to contain attrition. While the former saw attrition increase to 15 percent last quarter, the latter reported an all-time low attrition of 7.2 percent.
UB Pravin Rao, COO, Infosys, said during the earnings call on April 14, “Attrition has picked up, largely reflecting a strong demand environment. Given this, we expect the attrition to remain at this level for the next one or two quarters.”
To contain attrition, the company is looking at a second round of compensation in July 2021 after the wage hikes it rolled out in January 2021. “We have a lot of focus on continuous learning and career advancement opportunities. We will look at any intervention required in between,” Rao added.
TCS announced a salary hike for employees effective April 1, 2021.
