MUMBAI: Indian companies are increasingly complaining about the lack of quality talent at the entry level and more so in the IT/ITeS services space which recruits fresh graduates in huge numbers. According to a research conducted by a consulting firm, the findings of which were exclusively shared with TOI, only students from tier 1 engineering colleges, like the IITs and NITs, which constitute 4.5% of the overall engineering graduates, are fit to work in software products firms like Microsoft and Google given the kind of skills these companies need. On the other hand, 45% of students from tier 1, 2 and 3 colleges are employable by IT/ITeS services companies like Infosys and Wipro, reflecting the hiring challenges these technology firms grapple with in a fast-changing industry.
Overall in 2012, nearly 51 lakh students graduated in India, out of which 45.7% were from the arts stream, said Knowledgefaber, a Bangalore-based research & consulting firm.
Engineering and technology graduates made up 3.56 lakh of the overall talent pool at the graduate level. However, Knowlegefaber's research found that there are huge regional imbalances in the availability of engineering graduates. Four states ( Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra) together have more than 70% of these graduates. To add to this concern is the question raised on the quality of engineering schools in India and the quality of graduates coming out of these colleges, said the research.
"Customer needs are changing and technology developments are placing greater demand on the industry. Outstanding interface skills, deeper domain knowledge and awareness of the business context has become a 'must have' for today's professionals. Not all colleges that churn out students have been able to build these skills into their curriculum, thereby necessitating companies to bridge the skill gaps and bring about standardization of capability, among students hired from different parts of the country," said Hari T, chief people officer at IT services firm Mahindra Satyam.
This is the reason why companies will have to hunt for talent beyond the IITs and NITs. "Across industries, companies are looking to hire from tier 1 engineering colleges but the competition is very high and it represents less than 5% of the overall talent pool. We feel it is best recommended to look at talent in tier 2 and 3 cities," said Amit Goel, CEO, Knowledgefaber.
Computer science and IT accounts for nearly 32.5% of the fresh engineering talent in India while electronics and mechanical stream comes in second and third with 21.8% and 17.7% of students opting for these streams, respectively.
Sangeeta Lala, senior VP & co-founder at TeamLease Services, said, "IT graduate freshers are not usually skilled with new technologies like cloud computing, making them a less preferred option for companies. These companies would then look to internal scaling or experienced candidates who are readily deployable with the knowledge of new technologies."
Many IT firms have set up huge training facilities to help these graduates scale up, which experts say is the way forward. Also, they have facilitated tailor-made courses to bring about the right talent on board. "Through new hybrid models, corporates are sponsoring academic institution-specific courses, selecting the students as per their needs, providing the content and course material related to their industries and business, which is actually increasing the possibilities of employment for students," said Sunil Goel, MD , GlobalHunt India, a recruitment firm.
Source : TOI
BANGALORE: Attrition in top-tier IT companies has seen a sharp decline over the past year, indicating a slowdown in hiring of mid to senior level IT professionals in the current tough business climate.
Wipro's attrition rate has dropped sharply to 14.6% in the September quarter from the 21-22 % rates in the first half of the last financial year. TCS, the country's largest IT company, saw the rate dip to 11.4% in the most recent quarter, from 14.8% in the June quarter of last year. Mindtree's has dropped in the same period from 25.6% to 16.5%.
Saurabh Govil, senior VP-HR in Wipro Technologies, said voluntary attrition (attrition that excludes firing) in the company touched a 36-month low at 12% in the September quarter. "The tough environment is helping us to keep attrition levels low; jobs aren't available and companies are going slow on all fronts," he said.
Ravi Shankar, chief people officer in Mindtree, said attrition had softened as companies were hiring more freshers than lateral hires. "We are looking at ways to improve utilization on the bench," he said.
The IT sector has slowed down sharply because of economic weakness in the US and Europe. The industry's apex body Nasscom last week lowered the dollar revenue guidance for the $100 billion industry on account of underperformance by several of the big companies , notably Infosys and Wipro . Nasscom in February had predicted an 11-14 % growth, but last week said it was likely to be at the lower end of this range.
The unexpectedly sharp slowdown this year has also meant that companies have large reserves of unutilized employees, or what in industry parlance is called the bench. In many cases, 30% or more of employees are on the bench today . There are campus recruits from last year who are yet to work on a project.
HCL's head of talent acquisition Naveen Narayanan said the company was deploying people on the bench for customer build programmes, involving high degree of engagement with the client. "This gives them confidence and we support them through a defined reskilling programme ," he said.
Some companies say attrition has dropped for them because of special efforts to retain people. Mindtree said it had put in place a retention council headed by senior management within each business unit to address employee woes. "They address non-compensation related problems, issues like role change, upgradation of skills. We've seen a large percentage of attrition getting reversed through this process," Shankar said.
HCL's Narayanan said programmes to identify top performers among entry level and supervisory roles and to put them through leadership training had helped rein in attrition.
Rajesh Kumar, CEO of recruitment service provider MyHiringClub.com, said attrition levels were expected to be in the 13-15 % range in the current quarter, and may be fall further in the final quarter.
Source : TOI
The IT sector hit a trough in 2012 as things across the global scenario exhibited a slowdown, said Infosys Co-Chairman Kris Gopalakrishnan. "It takes time for the slow down to impact IT sector because in some way it is a support sector," he said.
Gopalakrishnan also feels that 2013 will be a much better year for the IT sector. "If things do not deteriorate further, nothing untoward happens in Europe or the fiscal cliff in US is managed, I believe 2013 could be a better year," he said.
However, he emphasised that the uncertainty that the sector is facing is still not gone. "We are going to see a period of uncertainty for the next 3 to 5 years," Gopalakrishnan said.
"From a technology perspective, I am very excited especially in the medium to long term. Information technology can still improve productivity, our quality of life significantly with cloud, mobility, social networking and internet," he added.
Infosys, India's No. 2 software services provider, may cut its revenue forecast next month as US business clients defer spending and balk at signing big deals.
The outsourcing icon, which has missed its own revenue guidance in three of the past four quarters, has struggled as its big customers cut costs, and analysts have criticised management for sticking with a rigid pricing policy when competitors have offered more flexible plans.
With about 60 per cent of its business in the United States, Infosys is particularly vulnerable to swings in US corporate sentiment and has been hit hard by spending deferrals.
UBS organised an investor meeting on December 6, featuring Infosys Chief Executive Officer SD Shibulal.
Longer-than-expected client shutdowns due to Hurricane Sandy, especially in the manufacturing sector, were also hurting Infosys, wrote Nagarajan in her report.
Infosys's guidance of 5 per cent dollar revenue growth for the current fiscal year compares with an estimate of 11 per cent for the sector by the National Association of Software and Services Companies, or Nasscom.
Source : TOI
BANGALORE: India's IT companies, which hired approximately 1.5 lakh students from campuses last year, will be hiring much less during this placement season starting August-September.
Country's third-largest software exporter Wipro, which had planned to keep the ratio of on-campus and off-campus hiring at 90:10 in the beginning of the year, has now changed it to 70:30, a senior executive from the Bangalore-based company said. "We will hire in a measured way till we get more (demand) visibility and increase off-campus numbers," the executive added.
In campus hires, companies have to make offers and wait for at least six months till the student finishes his degree. But it can hire off-campus as and when there is demand for more hands. Off-campus recruitments include freshers who had opted out of placements and some with very little work-experience and are picked by companies through hiring drives and job fairs.
"Off-campus hiring is gaining traction, especially among large IT firms that are cautious and are not able to take long-term business decisions," says Nasscom President Som Mittal said. "It helps them to take hiring decisions based on their needs."
Nasscom has cut IT-BPO industry's growth forecast to 11-14% this year, down from 16% last year. Some companies like Infosys have given a revised projection of 5%. IT companies are looking to calibrate hiring to the slowdown.
Last month, country's second-largest IT exporter Infosys said it could delay the joining dates of over 25,000 freshers it had hired from campuses in the 2011 placement season. Its mid-tier rival iGate, too, has delayed joining dates of close to 1,000 fresh engineers by a month or two.
TCS, India's largest IT firm which will hire 50,000 people this year, plans to maintain its campus hiring.
Companies say that quality is not an issue in off-campus hiring - despite many of the applicants being rejects from previous placement processes - if one is prepared to search harder for the right hires. "If 3 out of 10 people are suitable on-campus, that ratio will be much lower off-campus. You have to drudge a lot more to get the right people," says Naveen Narayanan, Global Head -Talent Acquisition, HCL Technologies.
HCL is willing to take the extra effort and will maintain its 70:30 ratio of on-campus to off-campus this year. It makes economic sense to spread hiring across all months, instead doing the bulk during placement season.
Mid-tier firms are following suit, but to break the monopoly enjoyed by the IT mammoths during placements. "Off-campus increases our chance of finding the right talent," Parthasarathy NS, COO of MindTree, said. "Large companies often visit campuses and recruit 95% of the best students on day one. Smaller firms, which typically visit on day 3 and 4, are left with a very small number," he added.
MindTree has therefore decided to increase its off-campus quota from 10% of total hires to 30% this year. This strategy is expected to give the Bangalore-based firm wider reach in tier-III and -IV colleges.
"Given the uncertain economic scenario, I would assume that on-campus placement numbers are going to come down this year," says Bhaskar Chavli, Chief Delivery Officer at NIIT Technologies. "Companies may want to see how business turns out and then decide on hiring targets."
Gurgoan-based start-up CoCubes.com - it connects companies and colleges through an online recruitment platform - has seen on-campus hiring over the past one year drop by 30-40%. The start-up, which works with companies like Capgemini and UST Global, had experienced a rush for off-campus demand in 2010. Back then Accenture placed urgent orders for 1,500 freshers off-campus in eight weeks and feels sudden demand will come their way again.
"A similar trend seems to be coming back this year as more companies wait for the economic environment to stabilise and then finalise their hiring plans," says Harpreet Singh Grover, co-founder and CEO of CoCubes.com.
Source : TOI
MUMBAI: Information Technology services and pharmaceuticals are likely to drive hiring growth in 2013, to fill mid and senior positions, said HeadHonchos.com, a leading job search and career management portal.
"The data in 'Management Hiring: Perspective report 2012', indicate that IT or software services and pharmaceuticals or life sciences could potentially drive the hiring growth in 2013," HeadHonchos said in a release.
Pharma has emerged as a powerful employer, replacing industries like telecom, which saw significant hiring in the previous year, it said.
The construction or real estate industry, despite slower growth continues to see hiring, given the infrastructure thrust in the country, it further said.
Foreign Direct Investment ( FDI) in retail, along with providing an impetus to senior hiring in retail, is also expected to provide a much-needed boost to the real estate industry, it pointed out.
Banking and finance is expected to be the dark horse, spurring employment on the back of the Banking Reforms Bill, it said.
In 2012, employers looked most for professionals in IT or software services, FMCG industries and BPO or ITES, followed by real estate and pharmaceuticals or life sciences to fill mid or senior positions.
The data released is based on the searches conducted by employers on the portal during last one year.
Elaborating on the findings, HeadHonchos.com CEO Uday Sodhi said, "Middle and senior management hiring in 2012 was reflective of the less than optimistic business or economic performance. Our discussions for 2013, with employers across industries indicate a revival of hiring for mid-senior management positions, signalling progressive business intent."
Source : TOI
Hiring activity in the IT sector is likely to be muted this year, Infosys Co-founder and Executive Co-Chairman S Gopalakrishnan has said.
"Hiring position seems to be muted this year because many companies still have deep bench (strength), in other words their utilisation rate is still low," he told PTI.
The $100-billion India IT-ITeS sector faced strong headwinds in 2012-13 due to global economic slowdown and muted spending in North America and Europe, which accounts for 80 per cent of Indian IT companies revenues.
Industry-body Nasscom expects a rise in global technology spending and opportunities created through adoption of disruptive technologies to propel growth in FY 2014.
Nasscom expects export revenues of $84-87 billion in 2013-14 fiscal at a growth rate of 12-14 per cent. Exports were estimated to have grown by 10.2 per cent to $75.8 billion in FY 2013.
The Indian IT industry, which contributes about 7.5 per cent to the country's economy, gives direct employment to 25 lakh people.
Source : TOI
In 2012, when State Bank of India invited applications for 1,000 probationary officer posts, around 5.1 lakh candidates across the country lined up for a shot.
This year, when the country's largest bank advertised for 1,500 vacancies for the same roles, 1.7 million candidates applied. If 510 candidates applied for every job available in 2012, 1,142 are now in the race for every probationary officer slot. Why such a jump in one year? "The lacklustre job market, competitive entry-level salaries and the perks have made us even more attractive," says SBI chief general manager (HR) Ranjit Goswami.
"In a dull market, any good opportunity is seeing a more-than-usual number of applicants. And SBI ranks right up there in terms of good opportunities," says A G Rao, managing director, ManpowerGroup India. Earlier this month, the Manpower Employment Outlook Survey of 5,370 employers across India reported that year-on-year hiring prospects have weakened by 19 percentage points. "Job security is naturally a big factor. Also, despite being a government organisation, SBI operates in a professional manner. Probationary officer positions are not just empowered but very well-paid as well," added Rao.
In the ongoing economic slowdown, with even IIM placements affected and the finance sector hit hard, jobs in public sector banks (PSBs), and particularly in SBI, are looking more attractive than ever before.
Not that it's ever suffered from a dearth of takers. Educated Indian middle class youth have always applied in large numbers for the SBI probationary officer exam. Job security is one big reason - an attribute ranked No 1 in terms of drivers of attraction by below 30-year-olds in the Towers Watson 2012 Global Workforce Study.
The pay too, more than holds its own against the private sector. The starting basic pay is Rs 16,900 applicable to junior management grade Scale 1 and the official will also be eligible for DA and HRA, the latter ranging from Rs 8,000 in rural areas to as much as Rs 29,500 in Mumbai. There are also medical benefits, loans at concessional rates, as well as other perks. The compensation per annum in Mumbai is pegged at Rs 800,000-plus.
The package is likely to see a further upswing soon after the unions and management wrap up their wage negotiations. "It may take another 6-7 months or more but the raise will be effective from November 2012," says Goswami. There are other reasons too. Making the final cut here depends only on the performance in the exam and the subsequent interviews. Previous academic records aren't taken into account; nor is the exam - as in the case of CAT - tilted in favour of those of a certain academic background. A Mukherjee, a B.Com graduate and PO hopeful, has been preparing for the last 3-4 months to crack the exam. "Unlike competitive exams, past academic scores don't matter. So it's a level playing field."
Says Randstad India MD& CEO E Balaji: "Even some of the most senior people at several MNC banks would have spent time in SBI at some point in their career. The scale SBI handles and the exposure it gives is huge."
At SBI, almost every senior official has gone through the probationary officer route to rise up the ranks. "The concept of lateral entry is practically non-existent. It happens only in specialised positions like IT and engineering, almost never in core banking," says Goswami.
He says that the bank's attrition rate is quite low. "In the next 2-3 years, some 5-6% of people at this level will leave the organisation, some to pursue studies, others for other jobs. After 4-5 years, very few people leave." Promotions apart, postings abroad, job rotation, training at premier institutions, including the IIMs, are among the rewards and recognition initiatives the bank doles out to its best and brightest.
Once through, probationary officers are on probation for two years, where they go through training. Post this, a confirmation test is held, on the basis of which high performers make it through to the next higher grade - officer middle manager grade Scale II.
Source : EC
| Class Awarded | % of marks to be secured |
| First Class with Distinction | 70% and above |
| First Class | Below 70% but not less than 60% |
| Second Class | Below 60% but not less than 50% |
| Pass Class | Below 50% but not less than 40% |
Hyderabad: After domestic LPG consumers, the attempt to force citizens to get Aadhaar numbers will affect students the most.
The state government has made it mandatory for students to submit Aadhaar numbers to claim scholarships and fee reimbursement from this year (2013-14).
Out of 28 lakh students who submitted applications for scholarships and fee reimbursement, only 18 lakh have submitted Aadhaar numbers so far. That leaves a massive backlog of 10 lakh students.
Aadhaar to hit old students the most
Students who have migrated to Hyderabad from other districts in the state to pursue various professional and degree courses in colleges of the city are in trouble due to few indispensable requirements of Aadhaar scheme.
To get their Aadhaar numbers, they need to submit address proof, which they can’t. Since, submitting Aadhaar details has been made compulsory by the authorities for students who want fee reimbursements or scholarships, such students who can’t submit the same within due time may land in trouble.
“There is no problem with the freshers who took admission this year as they have submitted Aadhaar numbers. The problem is with old students who took admission two or three years ago and are set to finish their course.
If they do not submit Aadhaar numbers by June, we can’t release scholarships and fee reimbursements. We are helpless in this issue as the Centre has made Aadhaar card mandatory for disbursal of scholarships,” said Raymond Peter, principal secretary, social welfare department.
He said students were alerted about the Aadhaar requirement last year and had enough time to get themselves enrolled in their native places. Though Aadhaar is not compulsory, various welfare schemes have made it compulsory.
Source : DC
