We'll hire 20,000 engineers from campuses this year: Vishal Sikka & Pravin Rao

Interview with CEO & COO, Infosys Technologies

After its better than expected results in the September quarter, information technology major Infosys plans to hire 20,000 engineers from college campuses this year. Attrition is low and employees are excited as they find work challenging and fun, say Vishal Sikka, chief executive, and Pravin Rao, chief operating officer. Edited excerpts of a talk with Bibhu Ranjan Mishra & Raghu Krishnan:

Traditionally, business is slow in the second half. Are we to expect no growth in the next two quarters?

Vishal Sikka: On the second half, we are aware that even if we are flat (in revenues), we will end up in the higher end of (our) guidance (forecast). Traditionally, the second half has seen mixed growth and we are going to work very hard to see it.

Is there a churn in the top management? We saw Sanjay Jalona (executive vice-president) quitting and now Rajiv (Bansal, chief financial officer) is quitting. And, how is attrition now?
VS: Attrition has come down. In the past quarter, it was down to 14.1 per cent. If you go to Infosys' campuses, our people say there is inspiration. They feel engaged and inspired at an unprecedented level. We have stable top management. Other than Sanjay and Rajiv, the entire team is still intact with us. In the course of our career, in the course of the life of the company, these things happen, this is natural. There is nothing unusual and I am not worried about this becoming a larger issue

Pravin Rao: If senior people leave, you feel bad about it. At the same time, we are happy for them; it is not that every day a CEO position opens up and we have enough bench strength to manage it. Attrition has come down to 14.1 per cent compared to last year, when it was 22 per cent. Today, it is in the ballpark of 13-15 per cent. People are actively participating. I believe attrition is no longer an issue

What are your plans for campus hiring? You also had a plan to hire interns. How is the strategy faring?

PR: We plan to recruit 20,000 people from campuses this year. We have maintained the salary of Rs 3.25 lakh (a year) for entry-level people from the past three years. As a strategy, we are also increasing the number of interns in (their) last semester of engineering. To make it more attractive and increase the stickiness, we are increasing the stipend paid to them from Rs 4,000 to Rs 10,000 a month. We believe the model of allowing people to work with us betters the impact of their readiness to get into the corporate world. In the overall training, it has been five to five and a half months but we have improved the courses and methodology in imparting the training.