Wipro says attrition to dip further, moonlighting remains concern

Wipro Ltd. expects attrition to decrease in the next few months as job markets slow down and opportunities diminish. Going forward, the company will become even tighter, the company said.

Saurabh Govil, President and Chief Human Resources Officer at Wipro, warned that moonlighting remains “a concern.” The fourth largest IT services company will recruit another 8000 in the last two quarters of the fiscal year, some of the onboarding will spill over to the following year.

“We have seen attrition go down over the last four quarters and it will go down in the fourth quarter (January-March). (Job) market and opportunities have slowed down and remain tight now,” said Govil. The company had rolled out about a 10% hike a quarter ago but Govil highlighted that while overall hiring frenzy has moderated, pockets of capability continue to see high demand.

October-December quarter’s attrition rate was 21.2%, down from 23% in July-September. Although, the attrition numbers in the IT sector remain high, rivals too have seen a dip in exit numbers.

Infosys clocked an 24.3%, compared to 27.1% in Q2, HCL’s reduced from 23.8% in Q2 to 21.7% in Q3. Tata Consultancy Services’ attrition went down from 21.5% in Q2 to 21.3% in Q3. Tech companies have struggled with counter-offers, out-of-turn raises, and promotions for almost a year.

For the third and fourth quarter of this fiscal, Wipro will recruit 8000 freshers from campuses and had hired 15,000 during the first half of this financial year. However, the onboarding will spill over onto the coming year. Campus hires represent the largest group of new recruits for most IT firms.

However, Govil cautioned that moonlighting remained “a concern” in the IT sector and they regularly found cases of employees who take advantage of work from home and moonlight. The IT sector has been plagued by employees who were found to moonlight, which is against the employment contract for most firms.

From this October onwards, Wipro has asked its employees to come three days a week and Govil said that there are clients who are asking for 100% attendance in office.

Wipro in a bid to strengthen its leadership pipeline promoted a record number of executives, elevating 12 to senior vice-president and 61 to vice-president positions in an effort to bolster its leadership team.

The company now has 200 vice-presidents and 32 senior vice-presidents working under CEO Thierry Delaporte after key senior exits from the company.

A boost in senior teams comes at a time when promotions are essential for retaining senior leaders.

Last year, at least four senior executives overseeing business in four countries quit Wipro. They included Douglas Silva, who had to oversee business in Brazil; Tomoaki Takeuchi, who joined as head of business for Japan; Sarah Adam-Gedge, who took over as managing director of Australia and New Zealand; and Wipro’s head of business for the Middle East region, Mohammed Areff.