Some Indian IT firms have not only deferred onboarding of freshers, but have also left them in limbo without providing any definite joining dates. According to data from the IT employee union Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (
NITES
), India’s leading IT firms delayed the onboarding of at least 10,000
freshers
who were offered jobs last year and the year before.
Harpreet Singh Saluja, president of NITES, said the labour union has received complaints from candidates who were offered positions at top and mid-tier
IT companies
such as TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Zensar, and LTIMindtree. In a recent email reviewed by TOI,
Infosys
informed these candidates, “We will allocate the DOJ (date of joining) based on business requirements and the DOJ will be sent at least 3-4 weeks prior to joining.” Infosys hired only 11,900 campus recruits in FY24, a significant 76% decrease compared to the 50,000 freshers it hired in the previous year.
Wipro has yet to fulfill campus offers made two years ago. During a recent earnings call, Wipro CHRO Saurabh Govil said, “The year before last, we went to campus and made many offers. We are yet to honour those. We will finish those offers and then hire new freshers. We will induct freshers this year, but we cannot give a number as the macro environment is uncertain.”
Campus placements hanging in the balance
In April, mid-tier IT services company Zensar requested candidates to take a test so that it could consider onboarding those who perform well. Last year, Zensar had asked freshers who were still waiting to be onboarded to confirm their continued interest in the job opportunity despite the delay. TOI has reviewed both emails sent to affected employees. Emails sent to TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Zensar and LTI Mindtree didn’t elicit a response till the time of going to press. The delay in onboarding freshers is primarily due to uncertainty in business in North America and Europe, where signs of a slowdown have made clients of these service providers cautious about IT spending. The recent quarterly results and forecasts announced by some IT firms indicate a signifi cant slowdown.
Krishna Vij, business head of IT staffing at Team lease, estimated that “around 3-5% of freshers hired by the top IT services companies in 2022 are yet to be onboarded. This could be due to lack of project visibility, and employers focus on the required skill sets and job readiness of the candidates.”
In the financial year ended in March, the combined headcount of TCS, Infosys, and Wipro dropped by nearly 64,000. The reason for the lack of a significant spike in hiring numbers is that IT firms over hired during the pandemic.
When the environment turned cautious, there was a greater focus on productivity without adding headcount. Ashwin Yardi, CEO of French IT firm Capgemini India, told TOI that the company is still evaluating the numbers for campus hiring this year. “The numbers will be moderated,” he said. Last year, Capgemini India hired around 30,000 freshers from campuses.
