IT cos shower perks on techies to retain talent

Hyderabad: POST pandemic, the software companies are winning large deals and it has resulted in huge demand for skilled professionals as well as fresh talent across the region. Higher attrition also led to increased hiring activities in the sector.

IT majors like Wipro, Infosys and Tech Mahindra are offering perks, incentives and bonuses as part of their enhanced retention efforts.

The pandemic has overturned several notions of how organisations traditionally approached talent engagement and development. The dramatic shift to the remote working environment has made labour across all industries more mobile.

High attrition levels have edged up across industries and the IT services industry is no exception. IT firms have taken multiple steps to stem attrition.

Wipro has initiated a robust rewards programme. Top performers and those working on future-focused niche technologies and domains are rewarded with substantially higher increases. It has taken several measures to ensure the employees' wellbeing that include financial assistance to hospitalisation and isolation support to vaccination camps.

"The company has rolled out two promotion cycles - one in December 2020 and another in June 2021. We also gave a salary increase in January 2021, June 2021 and we have announced a hike for 80 per cent of our employees (Assistant Manager and below) effective from September 1. We have also rolled out skill-based bonuses," said a Wipro spokesperson.

"We have also started agenda-less virtual coffee connects to promote recreation. Fun is an important element at work that provides stress relief and sparks creativity. Online quizzes, hobby chats and virtual music jams are some of the activities the teams are currently involved in to retain the fun element. These activities have contributed meaningfully to energise the workforce."

Infosys had a net headcount increase of 8,000 attracting leading talent from the market. Salil Parekh, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of the company, said: "We had a tremendous focus on our employee, especially related to the well-being and to the new talent expansion approach that we have with employees."

TechMahindra Chief People Officer Harshvendra Soin said: "Clearly, we've stepped up our hiring engine in April-June quarter not only by making sure that we have enough and more recruiters on our road, but also stepped up our partners. We are very confident that we will hire both laterals and freshers. We are going to significantly take it up this year."

Apart from performance-based bonuses, many IT firms are offering welcome bonus to the new joiners and infrastructure bonus to candidates availing work-from-home (WFH) option. Welcome bonus or sign-on bonus is a sum of money paid by a company as an incentive to the employee for joining the firm prior to the offer date.

In case of an urgent requirement, the hiring firm pays the buyout amount to an employee who has to make payment for not serving the notice period in the previous company. Though it is not a new trend, more instances are seen now-a-days due to the rising demand for talent, said Sandeep Kumar Makthala, president of Telangana Information Technology Association (TITA).

"The employees working in IT firms across Hyderabad region may increase to 6.6 lakh in a year from 6.3 lakh at present. Instead of spending monthly Rs 5,000 – 15,000 for a chair in plug-n-play office space, several tech companies are paying around Rs 25,000-50,000 as a one-time infrastructure bonus to each employee doing WFH. About 86 per cent are still engaged in WFH," he said.

Earlier, there was only year-end appraisal in the IT sector, but now, most of the tech companies are providing mid-year appraisal too.

Sandeep adds, "Dedicated employees are being offered about 150-200 per cent rise in variable pay as a perk depending on the rating given to them by their respective managers. This will go a long way in retaining the lateral talent."