Infosys Plans To Increase Local Workforce; To Hire 6,000 Engineers

Country’s second largest software services company, Infosys will continue to hire about 6,000 engineers annually over the next 1-2 years, same as the last financial year.

U B Pravin Rao Infosys interim-CEO and MD told PTI, "We continue to recruit. This year that just concluded we had a net addition of 6,000 and we expect similar kind of additions over the next 1 or 2 years, depending on the kind of growth you see in the market."

The firm has been making news storm over the past few months, with the founders and former board members clashing over alleged corporate governance lapses and irregularities in Infosys' $200-million Panaya acquisition.

Co-founder Nandan Nilekani was recently named the non-executive Chairman in a move that was seen as the company bowing to the demands of co-founders and large institutional investors.

Rao added that over one million graduates pass out each year, which may look like a large number but only 20-30 per cent of that is quality talent.

Infosys had a total of 1,98,553 employees on its payroll at the end of June 2017. Infosys hired 8,645 people at a gross level but its overall headcount was lower by 1,811 people on a net level in the last quarter.

IT industry has been going through layoffs due to global economic concerns and slowdown in the industry. And there were concerns that it could impact recruitment plans in India.

Rao said Infosys is also looking at increasing localisation of its workforce and is recruiting about 10,000 people in the next few years and setting up development and innovation hubs in the US.

Rao said, "We have already started the process and we will only accelerate. We continue to be very cautious about India. There are pricing challenges, and sometimes getting payment is a challenge."

The US is the largest market for Infosys, and accounted for over 61 per cent of its topline in June 2017 quarter. Europe accounted for 22.4 per cent of the company's Rs 17,078 crore revenue during April-June 2017 quarter.