IT major Infosys’s 12-month attrition spiked to a record-high 27.7 per cent during January-March 2022, making it the third straight quarter where more than 20 per cent of its employees left the company amid a war for IT talent as Indian software firms witness a surge in deal momentum on the back of companies increasing digitisation post-Covid.
The Q4 attrition of Infosys, the country’s second largest IT company, is much higher than the 17.4 per cent reported by larger rival TCS on Monday. The figure has also risen from the 25.5 per cent the Bengaluru-based firm reported in the previous quarter and 15.2 per cent reported during January-April 2021.
“In Q4, our attrition is down by five points from the previous quarter. Many of the initiatives we put in with regard to greater engagement, compensation, rotation of work and career progression, those are already starting to have an impact and we anticipate it will have an impact over the coming quarters,” said CEO and MD Salil Parekh in the post-earnings press conference on Wednesday.
Besides, hiring fresh graduates is one of the main ways the company is looking to address the problem of high attrition.
“We are in an environment where demand is chasing supply. It’s a good problem to have. The way to fulfil the demand is through freshers. Once the freshers feed in into the system, they take 3-4 months to come into production. That’s when you’ll see overall benefit on hiring… Over a period of 6 months, with more freshers coming in, you will see moderation of this from a more macro perspective,” said Chief Financial Officer Nilanjan Roy.
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The company hired 85,000 college graduates abroad and in India in FY22, with plans to hire more than 50, 000 fresh graduates in FY23.
Infosys added 52,822 software employees in the just concluded financial year, taking the total software professionals’ headcount to 2,97,859 as on March 31, 2022. In Q4 alone, it added 22,000 employees, according to its top management.
Meanwhile, its standalone employee benefit expenses also went up Rs 6,485 crore over the past year to Rs 51,664 crore as of March 31, 2022. This usually includes costs in the form of transport facilities, health insurance benefits, learning and development modules, among others. The management expects more headwinds to costs with the return of certain aspects such as travel which the Covid pandemic had suspended.
Roy said 95 per cent of their employees are currently working remotely and that the company has a three-phase approach for returning to office which was rolled out in April.
“The first phase is for people who are in their home locations. We are encouraging people to come at least twice a week. We are seeing a lot of traction there. Senior leaders are already having huddles. As part of Phase 2, we are encouraging people who are outside their base locations to start making preparations over the next few months to see if they can come back into their base location. This is based on individual circumstances. Over a longer period of time, we are looking at hybrid work. That will depend on the clients, regulatory environment and a number of other considerations,” Roy said.
Infosys reported a 12 per cent year-on-year increase in net profit at Rs 5,686 crore compared with Rs 5,076 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous financial year. Its revenues for the quarter rose 22.7 per cent to Rs 32,276 crore from Rs 26,311 crore in the year-ago quarter.
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