Lateral hiring at IT cos to pick up further

Even within IT industry, the sales pipeline looks healthy and because of this, lateral movement has slightly increased. So, this is continuing across sectors, but GCCs have a higher pie in the lateral hiring -- Siva Prasad Nanduri, CEO, Diensten Tech, tells Bizz Buzz

Experience In Focus

• 1,600 GCCs in India and growing
• These require lateral talent at mid-&senior levels
• Also, some of startups are growing
• Some startups hiring mid-level professionals to drive growth

Bengaluru: Lateral hiring of IT professionals is witnessing a slight uptick in the current quarter and is likely to gain momentum during January-March period though fresher hiring crawls with no visible signs of recovery yet.

According to staffing executives, Global Capability Centres (GCCs) of multi-national corporations, IT firms and some startups are driving the current uptick in lateral hiring seen in recent months. This is a marked departure from last two quarters when Indian IT firms have halted backfilling of vacancies.

“There are around 1,600 GCCs in India and they are going to grow. These technology centres require lateral talent in the mid-level and senior level. So, lateral hiring is happening by the GCCs. Also, some of the startups are growing. Even within IT industry, the sales pipeline looks healthy and because of this, lateral movement has slightly increased. So, this is continuing across sectors, but GCCs have a higher pie in the lateral hiring,” Siva Prasad Nanduri, CEO of staffing firm Diensten Tech, told Bizz Buzz.

Sources in the know said that IT firms have started backfilling some of the vacant positions of experienced professionals for executing project work on the back of strong deal wins.

Lateral hiring happens for experienced professionals and these usually are done through staffing firms.

In the last two quarters, Indian IT firms have stopped backfilling vacant positions arising out of resignations of experienced professionals. This has led to fall in the headcount of IT services companies in the last two quarters. Hiring has also been substantially down in the first two quarters of ongoing financial year.

Hiring by nine out of 10 Indian IT companies fell in the July-Septemberquarter, making it the first time when overall headcount has shrunk in 25 years.Top four IT firms- Tata Consultancy Service, Infosys, HCL Tech and Wipro- havecumulatively cut their workforce by about 38,950 employees in the first half of this fiscal.

While Infosys saw it headcount shrinking by 7,530, Tata Consultancy Services’ headcount fell by 6,333 and Wipro by 5,015 during the second quarter ended September.

After two quarters of lull in lateral hiring, slight uptick is an indication of better times in the coming year, staffing professionals said.

They, however, opined that campus hiring remained subdued with no improvement seen in the current quarter.

“Status quo continues in the fresher hiring space as the market sentiment is still not very positive. Even large institutions have reported slow hiring. We hope that this will be positive for the next year,” said Nanduri.