Wipro plans to promote around 5,000 employees to check attrition

In Q2FY20, Wipro's attrition rate stood at 17%, which was 60 bps lower than the previous quarter. As compared to Wipro, Infosys reported 170 bps fall in attrition on sequential basis to 21.7%

Information technology (IT) services major Wipro is planning to promote around 5,000 employees in the coming quarters, to check attrition and make the IT firm ready for future demand. 

“Attrition (rate) has been a good story for us as compared to others. We have given salary hikes and now are looking at a huge number of promotions in the coming quarter. Around 5,000 people in the experience range of five to eight years will get promoted,” said Saurabh Govil, president and chief human resources officer at Wipro. 

In the April-June quarter of FY20, Wipro paid a retention bonus of Rs 1 lakh  to the freshers, who were hired via campus placement and completed one year. Those who had an experience of up to three years in the firm, since the time of their campus placements, were also given bonuses.

The move was aimed at checking attrition as the IT industry has seen a higher number of junior staffers leaving their employers in the past quarters. “Junior-level attrition is slightly higher than the company average. However, it is lower among performers as they get higher bonuses, incentives and salary hikes,” said Govil. 

According to the company, in the next phase of promotion, while employees at L1 level would go to L2; L2 would be promoted to L3. IT firms categorise staffers into various levels starting from L1 (junior most level) onwards.

In the quarter ended September, Wipro's attrition rate stood at 17 per cent, which was 60 basis points (bps) lower than the previous quarter. As compared to Wipro, Infosys reported 170 bps fall in attrition on sequential basis to 21.7 per cent. During this period, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) reported a marginal rise of its attrition rate to 11.6 per cent as compared to 11.5 per cent in Q1 of FY20.  

In anticipation of demand, Indian IT firms have been hiring aggressively for the last three quarters. After adding around 6,000 fresh graduates in the first quarter, Wipro hired another 3,000 graduates during the second quarter.

"We want to be (stay) prepared. That's the reason we are building up a huge cadre and are preparing for the demand through training and re-skilling our people well. These initiatives should reflect on our revenue in the next two-three quarters," Govil said. He also said that the IT firm was reducing its dependence on sub-contractors by building up an employee pyramid on key onsite locations. According to the company, around 68 per cent of its employees in the US are locals.  

Apart from scaling up its delivery capabilities, Wipro is eyeing more consulting-led sales growth in coming quarters and hiring more consultants to improve its cross-selling opportunities. "We are hiring more people in this consulting space. Today, it's (one of our) big investment areas and it is paying us back well," Govil said.