Infosys to hire 25,000 during fiscal 2009, hike wages by 11-13 percent

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According to T.V. Mohandas Pai, head of human resource development and education and research, Infosys, the company added 5,947 employees (net addition 2,586) in fourth fiscal quarter of 2007-2008, and 33,177 employees (net 18,946) in the full year.

In the ongoing year, the company plans to hire 25,000 people (8000 lower than last year) with nearly 18,000 people to be hired from various campuses in the country, taking the total number of employees from the present 91,187 to over 100,000, he said.

"We have already made campus offerings of 18,000 for this fiscal," Pai said.

The company also plans to hire as many locals in the US, Europe, Australia, China and Mexico where it has set up development centers, he continued.

The attrition rate has come marginally to 13.4 percent in fiscal 2008 as against 13.7 percent during the previous period, while the utilization rate has been at 76 percent as against 68.4 percent during the previous corresponding period, he added.

The average salary hike this year would be between 11-13 percent (compared to 12-15 percent announced last year) for its Indian employees and 4-5 percent for overseas employees, Pai said.

Nonetheless, the wage hike for the Indian staff would shave off 2.3 percent from the company's profit margins in the June quarter, while costs of processing visas would impact margins by 80 basis points (0.80 percent) in the same quarter, V. Balakrishnan, CFO, Infosys, said.

Infosys has a training center in Mysore with a capacity to train 13,500 candidates every quarter - the largest training facility in the world. The campus also provides accommodation for 10,000 candidates and teaching staff.

The company, which has been investing about Rs.700 crore ($175 million) each year towards training its employees, plans to invest Rs.1,000 crore ($250 million) more towards training next fiscal, Pai said.

"Our ability to train and invest in people gives us a unique competitive advantage. Our investment in people enable us to go up the value chain in a significant manner," he said.

Infosys offers a salary package of Rs.3.25 lakh to freshers this fiscal, up 8 percent from last year.

"We are financially very sound and have enough cash to pay all our employees for a year even if we were inactive," Pai said.

Infosys, which announced a 20.1 percent rise in consolidated revenue to Rs.16,692 crore ($4.17 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2008, and its subsidiaries have cash and cash equivalents exceeding Rs.13,000 crore ($3.25 billion).

Infosys Technologies is India's second largest IT services provider that develops applications, designs supply chains and offers back-office services.

The company, founded in 1981 and listed in Nasdaq, counts ABN AMRO, Goldman Sachs, British Telecom (BT) and Philips Electronics among its 500-strong clients.