Indian information technology (IT) companies’ employee spending has climbed to an all-time high as salaries soared in their effort to retain talented staff.
As per a news report, India’s second-biggest IT firm Infosys, which reported a 27.7 per cent attrition rate for the fourth quarter of FY22, plans to hand out an average salary increase of 12-13 per cent, and high potential staff will get hikes of 22-23 per cent.
India’s top software services exporter Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) has announced that for the FY23, the salary of its employees will increase by 6-8 per cent. It is important to mention in this context that the trend is not specific to India, but companies across the world have been scrambling to secure top tech talents.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told employees that the IT behemoth plans to nearly double its global budget for merit-based salary hikes.
“Time and time again, we see that our talent is in high demand, because of the amazing work you do to empower our customers and partners. Across the leadership team, your impact is both recognized and deeply appreciated — and for that I want to say a big thank you. That’s why we’re making long-term investments in each of you,” trade publication GeekWire first reported, citing Nadella’s email to employees.
Rituparna Chakraborty, co-founder and executive vice president, TeamLease Services, told Business Standard that when companies talk about an average salary increase, they refer to the total hike in wage cost. But the actual salary increase of an employee could vary from high to low.
Citing TeamLease’s recent jobs report, she further elucidated that employees opt for super-specialised job roles and the demand for these categories is also increasing. The growth rate in this category has increased from 11-12 per cent this year. Sectors such as startups, IT and e-commerce will see salary increases of more than 11 per cent this year.
The financial daily quoted Shiv Aggarwal, managing director, ABC Consultants, as saying that the industry has witnessed the highest ever salary increase in the last one year.
He went on add that the salary increase in the IT services sector will be in double digits. Plus, companies can say that they are increasing the salary by 12 to 14 per cent, but people are getting offer letters with 50 to 100 per cent salary jump.
TCS has rolled out salary hikes in double-digit and in some cases up to 25 per cent, an human resource expert told the daily on conditions of anonymity.
HCL Technologies hiked fresher level compensation package to Rs 4.25 lakh from the industry standard of Rs 3-3.6 lakh.
Cognizant said that it will hire more freshers and consider revising the salaries of employees in the backdrop of the high attrition.
