Massive attrition in Infosys, TCS, Wipro! Over 1,00,000 quit in a year

Infosys, Wipro & TCS have lost more than 1, 00, 000 employees in last four quarters, thanks to advent of new technologies, cloud computing and automation.

The attrition rate in these companies is increasing and the $146-billion Indian IT industry is consistently haemorrhaging more people.

As per an analysis by Economic Times, in last four quarters, TCS, Wipro and Infosys combined have lost roughly over 100,000 people between them, while the gross addition for the three combined stood at roughly 150,000 and net addition was between 40,000 to 50,000.

Attrition rates at 19%-20% are becoming a norm.

ET reported that Infosys' attrition rate was 22.3% on a consolidated basis and 18.9% on a standalone basis for the year ended March. In the latest quarter, Infosys lost 8,553 employees, with a net addition of 3,336 employees.

TCS’ attrition numbers were nearly double than that of Infosys, losing nearly 15,000 people during the quarter, with a net addition of roughly 5,279 employees.

"In FY10, we had revenue of $6.3 billion with a headcount of 160,000. In FY15, we doubled the headcount to 320,000. But the revenue did not just double. We generated revenues of $15.5 billion, representing a productivity gain of nearly $3 billion,” N Chandrasekaran, CEO at TCS, had told gathering at Morgan Stanley Annual India Summit last month.

Meanwhile, Wipro saw about 12,500 people exiting, even as it reported net addition of a little over 3,000 employees.

As per a NASSCOMM data, during the year ended March 2015, the Indian IT industry hired 14,350 engineers for each billion dollars in revenue.

"While, the industry as a whole is still measured in recruiting and adding to headcount, employees' concerns about the firms' growth and personal career advancement is leading to them switching firms (e.g. folks leaving Infosys for Wipro and vice-versa, even as these two companies are yet to shake off the growth shackles). 'The grass is greener on the other side' mind set is perhaps leading to employee swapping between firms," Viju George of JP Morgan George said in a note earlier this month.

Indian IT firms do not have digital contracts and a tighter distribution of visas also raises the need to hire short-term consultants onsite.

Digital contracts typically require a higher proportion of onsite workers, at least initially.

(Image: Indiatimes)