Big salary hikes in store for IT execs: experts

IT industry is likely to witness attractive salary hikes and job offers for experienced professionals, resulting in high attrition over the next few quarters as demand for talent will outstrip supply, say experts.

"It looks like a talent war among the IT companies, where people hold multiple job offers and try to select the best firm. And companies are also making efforts to select best talent pool for their requirements,"said Sunil Goel, Director, GlobalHunt, an executive search firm.

Echoing similar view, staffing services firm Manpower India Head (Sales and Marketing), Namr Kishore said, "In India, demand far outstrips genuine qualified supply. Companies are vying for the best talent and are ready to offer hefty packages for the same, luring the employees to switch jobs at a swift pace."

Wage hikes have been very good in IT companies this year. It has been 15-25%. And for niche and critical skills, companies have given 30-45% hikes while recruiting or retaining talent for specific projects.

"The trends seen so far is as per expectation and after tier one companies having set the expectation other companies can do not much but follow the trend to a large extent," said Thammaiah B N, Director, India Kelly IT Resources, Kelly Services, a global workforce player.

Thammaiah said he expects hikes in the range of 10-15% broadly, and around 20% for niche skills or business critical roles.

Experts said that such high salary hikes by IT companies will be sustainable at least for the next few quarters as firms usually deliver projects through a mix of freshers and experienced resources.

Besides, they added, not all employees receive such hikes. Only the top performers do, rest employees get around 8-10% hike.
    
Profitability of most Indian software companies are likely to come down to 15-20%, which are international standards, from present 25-30%. But the fact that these companies are regularly bagging huge projects might help them sustain the current profitability, Kishore said.
    
"Attrition has become the DNA, which is required from both the sides. If IT professionals do not change jobs and upgrade themselves as per latest technology, then they may get outdated. The same applies to the companies too, if they do not innovate model and market themselves, they may get outdated," Goel said.