57% IT pros in India won't return to IT services sector: Teamlease

Fifty-seven percent of tech professionals in India would not consider returning to the IT services sector in the future, if their desire for flexibility, career growth and value proposition is not met, according to a new study. 

The study done by tech staffing firms, TeamLease Digital, titled ‘Talent Exodus Report’, further said that if factors such as flexibility, a strong sense of ownership and employee wellbeing are not met, employees are also quitting their well-cushioned jobs in the mid-way. This according to the study, debunks the misconception that "a salary increase would improve performance and boost job satisfaction". 

Sunil Chemmankotil, Chief Executive Officer, TeamLease Digital, said that “with the global pandemic disrupting the IT hiring chain, there is evidence of a reverse trend which indicates that retaining a business-critical talent has undergone a great change in the last two years”. 

“Organisations’ strategic hiring plans must contain goals towards their employees and their betterment. This ultimately translates into soul searching over whether an employee feels valued in his/her work or merely creates outcomes and value to benefit others. A fundamental change in the employment value proposition leads to deeper employee-employer relationships, a strong sense of owning and purpose-driven work,” he added 

The Indian IT sector has witnessed tremendous growth in the last decade. It has recorded 15.5% growth, which is the fastest in more than a decade and touched $227 billion, creating additional 5.5 lakh jobs in FY22 alone. However, IT Services companies are also facing multiple headwinds in recent months. 

Kamal Karanth, co-founder of Xpheno, an IT staffing solutions company, said that it is time for a "reality check for the IT industry that needs to re-evaluate their "hiring and retaining strategies to check high attrition". 

Further as per Xpheno data shared with Mint, 23% of the IT Services sector talent has had one or more career movements over the last 12-month period. With the tech sector recording heightened attrition rates across all major players, ranging from 8% to 37%, the talent movement rate of 23% is in line with the average attrition rates seen in the Industry, it said.  

Eighty-three percent of the movements were towards other employers within the IT sector. The remaining 17% of the movements is distributed across a wide range of industries and sectors, including startups and GCCs. 

Attrition rates of major IT firms in India have peaked and as per reports, for the quarter ended June 30, 2022. The attrition rates of major IT firms such as Infosys were at 28.4%, Wipro at 23.3%, TCS at 19.7%, HCL Technologies at 23.8%, and Mindtree at 24.5%. 

Recently, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) stopped its first-year anniversary hikes to arrest high staff costs in the country's technology sector. Others like Infosys are rolling out 70% of variable pay, and Wipro had delayed payouts for certain employee categories. 

Jayanth Kolla, co-founder at Converge Catalyst, too agreed that IT services companies should increasingly focus on more holistic measures to attract and retain people – things such as flexibility, career growth path, healthcare and other benefits to engage talent which in turn will deliver value to both employee and employers.