IT firms set to stagger induction of freshers

MUMBAI: IT companies are at it again. After slowing down hiring plans for 2008-09 by as much as 15%, they are expected to stagger the joining of their freshers and campus recruits, to whom offers were made earlier.

Such a strategy is aimed to counter the heat arising from  the US slowdown and the appreciation of the rupee against  the dollar, say human resource professionals and industry experts.

Freshers and campus recruits account for as much as 65% of the total number of people recruited in a year by any IT firm.

“Offers to fourth year engineering students were made in 2007. The students join only from June 2008, after the completion of the course. In this period, the rupee has appreciation by as much as 10.2% against the US dollar, compelling companies to ask freshers to join in batches. Freshers could join anywhere from June to November,” says Kris Lakshmikanth, founder CEO and managing director of recruitment firm HeadHunters India Pvt Ltd.

HCL Technologies, which made about 5,000 campus offers in 2007 to fourth year engineering students of more than 45 colleges, is expected to take the recruits in batches of 700-1000 from June to November, as per business needs, says Ravi Shankar, head-talent acquisition group at HCL Technologies.

Bangalore based MindTree Consulting is also expected to bring about staggered joining of its freshers. The company has made 1,000 campus offers.

“We create a roadmap through which people can join us through the year as per our business requirements. Freshers would join us in more than two batches from June to say October,” says Puneet Jetli, vice president, people function at MindTree Consulting.

Wipro Technologies, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Cognizant, each of which make anywhere between 15,000-22,000 campus offers a year, are also expected to go slow on the joining of fresh recruits.

Says Preeti Rajora, general manager- talent acquisition at Wipro Technologies, “Our recruitment is aligned with our business needs in the four quarters. In 2007, we made 18,000 on campus and off campus offers to freshers and their joining will be staggered.” This year Wipro has made 15,000 campus offers.

HR experts says this is happening as the companies are increasing capacity utilisation of their ‘bench’ -employees who aren’t yet working on active projects — by as much as 80%.

“This is a method aimed at cost cutting during a slowdown. By increasing utilisation of bench-in other words-involving the bench in active projects,

they slow down joining of freshers,” says E Balaji, CEO of staffing firm Ma Foi Consultants Ltd.

Companies are expected to have a buffer, or bench, with respect to employees under contractual agreements with clients.

The heat from the US slowdown is also seen in the comparatively less number of offers made by IT firms to students from the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs). The decline has been to the tune of around 15% at IITs.

“The top IT firms are no longer the number one choice on the IIT campus as the salaries they quote are as much as 50-60% below students’ expectations. I think the rupee appreciation is playing into the low salaries that are being offered,” says Kushal Sen, training and placement coordinator at IIT Delhi.

Offers by IT companies for IIT students average Rs 4-5 lakh per annum.
The IIMs have also witnessed a decline in offers by IT firms. An IIM Bangalore official says that offers by IT firms this year constitutes only 14% of the 260 offers that were made.

Same is the case with the other members of the IIM family. “This works towards the fact that the slowdown has affected the companies to the extent that they are making less offers and elongating the joining of freshers,” states Balaji.

g_priyanka@dnaindia.net