Hit by 12% attrition in Q4FY21, Wipro readies arsenal to retain talent

7% pay hike w.e.f. Jan 1 for 80% staff, rest to get one in June, first round of promotions done in Dec 2020, next to begin this June

IT major Wipro reported attrition for the fourth quarter of FY21, at 12 per cent an increase of one percentage point from the last quarter. The company,  however, is taking the talent war head-on and rolling out salary hikes, promotions, and skill-based incentives.

Saurabh Govil, chief human resource officer, Wipro said that the demand environment is robust but he hopes that the measures that the company has taken will bring down the attrition figures in the coming quarters.

To start with Wipro announced salary hikes of around 7 per cent on average, effective January 1, 2021 for 80 per cent of its employees. From June 1, 2021 the rest of the employee base will also get salary hike.

“Our first round of promotion cycle for the junior batch was done in December 2020. Another promotion cycle for all our employees will begin in June in total 10,000 people will get promoted. Add to this we are also giving out skill-based bonuses for people with the right skills, and it is already underway,” explained Govil.

That is not all. Wipro is also planning to hire aggressively from campuses. For FY21 the company onboarded 10,000 freshers, and in Q4 alone it had a gross addition of 18,000 people.

The total headcount for Wipro for FY21 was 197,712 with gross utilisation of 76.7 per cent.

Compared to peers TCS and Infosys, the former has the lowest attrition rate at 7.2 per cent. Whereas, Infosys reported a jump in attrition at 15 per cent.

Wipro, like its peers, is also working on reskilling its employee base. “Being competitive from compensation is important, but there are other things as well. Re-learning and skilling are becoming critical for employees as well to be retained. We have created an outstanding platform where people can learn anytime, anywhere and get certified,” said Govil.

At present 96 per cent of the workforce at Wipro is working remotely, Govil however says that though the company is working on a hybrid model, in the long term, employees would want to come back to office, “It is also important to be socially connected to build a culture as well,” he added.

While the company has seen offshoring going up, with its majority markets such as US getting vaccinated they would need onshore presence as well. “As an organisation we are not dependent on the visa programme, almost 70 per cent of our employees are locals and that is not going to change. We have come of age to get impacted by visa on growth. We have seen offshoring going up, but as things get normal demand for onshore is also rising,” said Govil.