Involuntary exits gave rise to staff attrition in June quarter: Infosys

Infosys on Friday said involuntary attrition went up in the June quarter, leading to higher number of employee exits. Experts said this was perhaps the first time when the company admitted of laying off some employees. The Bengaluru-based firm, however, didn't provide the gross additions of employees. 

“Attrition was higher than where we wanted it to be. There is a seasonality element to it as Q1 historically has seen higher attrition because people opt for higher education. In addition to that, we have also seen higher percentage of involuntary attrition as well,” said Infosys Chief Operating Officer UB Pravin Rao. 

The company reported overall attrition of 23.4 per cent in the June quarter, 300 basis points higher over the preceding quarter. During the last quarter, net staff addition was at 908, which was one of the lowest in recent years, to take its total headcount to 229,029.  To check the attrition rate to desirable level, the company said it was taking various measures to pull down employee exits to lower levels.  “We have launched a new employee value proposition. We believe that attrition will come back to manageable levels,” said Rao. The 

IT firm, however, said high performance attrition continued to remain lower and its deliverables had not been impacted due to high rate of exits. 

The NYSE-listed firm has said salary hike for its mid-size and senior-level employees would be rolled out as per its schedule. In April, the company had announced 6 per cent wage hike for its employees located in India, while for overseas employees it was 1.5 per cent. Majority of the junior employees were offered wage hike with effect from April, the company said. “Our wage hikes are always staggered. While we give hikes to our junior employees in April, mid-level staff gets their raise in July. For senior level staff, the hike is given in October,” Rao said, denying any delay in giving out hikes to staffers.

Overall, the company added 8,000 employees in the first quarter, of which 2,500 were fresh graduates. In the current financial year, it is looking at hiring 18,000 graduates from campuses.