EY to hire 14,000 employees in India; Deloitte, KPMG recruiting too

Ernst & Young (EY), one of the largest professional services firms in the world, is reportedly planning to hire 14,000 employees for its global delivery services (GDS) centres in India as a part of its strategy to boost its technology and consultancy services delivery network.

EY, which is competing with the tech majors in India such as Infosys, Wipro, TCS and HCL Technologies, is planning to recruit professionals with expertise in advanced analytics and other highly-skilled professionals across its eight GDS centres in the country, The Economic Times reported. As of now, the company employs about 27,000 people at its GDS centres.

According to Srinivasa Rao, global vice-chair at EY GDS, there has been surge in the demand for digital transformation and innovation focused services from global clients which prompted auditing firms to expand their workforce. The company expects to hire 14,000 people this financial year, said Rao, adding that GDS is globally seen as the "conduit" for all its outsourcing contracts.

Rival auditing companies, Deloitte and KPMG, have also announced plans to hire 40,000 and 8,000-9,000 people, respectively, to strengthen their teams in India, the daily reported.

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"We are no longer looking at the talent that is proficient in repetitive, standard, codified tasks as we have built more technology (using) automation (and) artificial intelligence into some of our basic delivery models," said Rao.

"Hence, we are looking and reaching for higher value talent. The areas we're looking at are typically advanced analytics, cybersecurity, automation and machine learning, and (we are) continuing attention around artificial intelligence."

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The company's key areas of focus across the GDS facilities include advisory, client technology, and innovation among other services, said Rao.

The auditing firm has opened a third Wavespace centre in Bengaluru in addition to the ones in Thiruvananthapuram and Mumbai.

For the financial year ended June 2019, the company has reported record combined global revenues of $36.4 billion, contributed by all service lines, geographies and key industries.  In FY19, the company's headcount increased by 8.6 per cent to more than 284,000 people globally.

Edited by Chitranjan Kumar