Wipro puts 9,800 freshers on hold

BANGALORE: Reeling under the impact of global meltdown, Wipro Technologies Ltd has kept about 9,800 graduate engineers, hired from campuses last
year, waiting to join the IT bellwether, a company official said.

"Of the total 13,500 campus offerings made across the country last year, we have taken 3,700 of them so far, while the remaining (9,800) have been told to wait for their turn to join," Wipro vice-president for talent acquisition Pradeep Bahirwani told reporters at a hurriedly called press conference.

Due to slowdown in the IT industry and tough business environment, Bahirwani said, the company had discontinued campus offerings this fiscal for the time being.

"We have made 8,000 campus offers across the country in about 200 engineering colleges, including IITs and NITs (National Institutes of Technologies) this year as against 13,500 last year," Bahirwani said.

To make better use of the engineering freshers hired but not absorbed, the company has began to offer them the option of joining its BPO (business processes outsourcing) division at its software development centres in Kolkata, Bhubaneswar and Hyderabad for the same compensation fixed for IT services.

"To meet our BPO division's requirements in technical support, we have offered them the choice of coming onboard or wait as long for the joining date at the salary stack made in the offer letter. We hope to see a turn-around in business after 12-18 months to move them to IT services," Bahirwani said.

The company's novel initiative to ask freshers hired for IT services to join BPO division by paying upfront Rs 75,000 for bond backfired in Kolkata, with the hired engineers protesting against such the move and taking up the matter with West Bengal IT Minister Debash Das on Monday.

"The option has been given in commensurate with our current requirements, which are more in BPO than in IT services, as technical support role
requires engineering grads and not those from science or general stream. There is no compulsion or change in compensation," Bahirwani clarified.

Defending the offer to join the BPO division, the HR official said the decision was taken to give an opportunity to engineering graduates to get on work without further delay.

Wipro's global IT services business had 97,552 employees, including 16,500 in the BPO division till the second quarter (July-September) of this fiscal.

Courtesy: Times of India

Telecom Italia to cut 4,000 jobs

ROME: Debt-burdened Telecom Italia, Europe's fifth-biggest telecoms provider, will shed non-core assets worth up to $3.82 billion and cut 5 per
cent of its workforce in a bid to slash borrowings and trim costs amid a weak economy.

But the company confirmed it aims to strengthen its presence in Brazil as part of its 2009-2011 business plan announced, despite recent reports that it could consider splitting off or selling the unit.

The strategy focuses heavily on slashing costs and trimming its 37 billion euro debt load and relies on growth largely from Italy and Brazil. Telecom's Brazil unit, TIM Participacoes SA, has seen the highest growth for years in the group.

It will also expand in Argentina by exercising a call option to raise its stake in Sofora, the company which controls Telecom Argentina. Non-core assets worth up to 3 billion euros will be divested.

Telecom Italia said it would work to cut overall costs and investments by some 2 billion euros over the next three years, with 40 per cent of those savings coming in 2009. It will cut 4,000 jobs, on top of existing plans to cut 5,000 jobs by 2010. It had around 80,000 employees at the end of September.

The company said it expects 2009 revenue and organic earnings before interest, taxes, debt and amortisation (EBITDA) in line with those of 2008, and forecast investments of around 4.8 billion euros next year.

It expects to grow organic revenues by 3 per cent annually over the three-year period, while generating free cash flow of around 22 billion euros. It forecast cutting its net debt/EBITDA ratio to 2.3 by 2011 from around 3 in 2008.

Telecom Italia shares have halved in value from a year ago partly over doubts related to its belt-tightening strategy. They are trading at around one euro, giving the company a market value of about 17.55 billion euros.

But its shares have rallied nearly 13 per cent over the past month amid signs Chief Executive Franco Bernabe's efforts to trim debt and cut costs without major fireworks are bearing fruit.

Courtesy: Times of India

Fujitsu Siemens to cut 700 jobs

FRANKFURT: Fujitsu Siemens Computers plans to slash around 700 jobs in Germany -- 12 per cent of its workforce in the country -- due to continue
d competitive and economic challenges, it said.

Fujitsu Siemens Computers Holdings (FSC) is Europe's biggest maker of personal computers and employs about 10,500 worldwide, most of whom are in Germany.

It said the job cuts were not a result of its new ownership structure but rather a move to improve profitability and competitiveness.

Management began talks with union representatives about the plans on Thursday, Fujitsu Siemens said.

Earlier this month, Japanese electronics conglomerate Fujitsu Ltd said it will buy Siemens AG's 50 per cent stake in the business for 450 million euros ($580.5 million).

Fujitsu had said at the time it had no plans for any job cuts.

Profit margins are thin in the PC business, which is largely commoditised and fiercely competitive on price.

Wipro to recruits: Join BPO for now

BANGALORE: India’s third largest software exporter Wipro is asking its latest batch of recruits from engineering colleges if they want to join its business process outsourcing (BPO) division instead of the technology services unit for which they were originally hired.

Wipro said it is offering the option because it sees delays in the joining dates for some batches of recruits due to the ‘current business environment.’ According to sources, the students have been given the option of working in the BPO division for a year and later they could be shifted to the IT services vertical. The salary from the original offer remains unchanged.

“Every year campus joining is spread out over the four quarters. This is done for logistical reasons of training and seating. Staggered hiring programme and timelines are also closely linked to our business. Due to current business scenario, we estimate delays in joining dates of some batches of recruits. We are providing them an option of a role in our BPO division. The objective is to let engineering graduates commence work without delay,” Wipro Technologies’ vice president-Talent Acquisition, Pradeep Bahirwani, said.

He declined to comment on the number of recruits who have been given the option or when they were due to join.

The company has made offers to a total of 14,000 students for the 2008-09 fiscal. Wipro said last month that it expects revenue from its IT services business for the October-December third quarter to remain almost unchanged from the $1.1 billion in the previous three-month period because of the deteriorating global economic situation.

Reacting to the slowdown in the key US and European markets, software industry grouping Nasscom is due to revise lower its forecast of a 21-24 per cent increase in IT services exports during the 12 months to March 2009.

There has been a lot of apprehension among students that the difficult economic situation may result in tech companies not honouring the job offer that have been made. But the country’s top three IT services provider--TCS, Infosys and Wipro--have steadfastly maintained that they will keep their word.

At the end of September, Wipro employed nearly 62,000 staff in its IT services business and about 21,000 in the BPO division. It also makes strategic sense for Wipro to recruit the new engineering graduates in the BPO unit as this vertical regularly witnesses higher attrition rates than the IT services division.

Courtesy: Times of India

IT sector high in education fraud

BANGALORE: Education-related discrepancies among the employees in the Indian IT industry has increased during the second quarter of the current
calendar year when compared to the first quarter, according to report by First Advantage.

The IT industry has experienced the highest increase (almost 3.5 times) in education related discrepancies compared to Q1 of 2008, First Advantage said in its second quarterly report ‘Background screening trends-India.’

First Advantage managing director (West Asia) Ashish Dehade said, “Background screening acts as a first line of defence against potential fraud and security breaches. More sectors taking it up actively would employ fewer candidates misrepresenting information and thus, concurrently, fewer likely to engage in frauds or security breaches.”

However, this is not limited to just the IT sector alone as educational qualification-related discrepancies in the banking and financial services (BFSI) sector was the highest in the last quarters.

First Advantage said all the key industries tracked have shown an increase in education-related discrepancies. The report said that maximum discrepancies in educational qualifications were related to institutions in Northern India at 34 per cent, followed by Southern India at 30 per cent.

Almost half (48 per cent) of all fake university cases came from Northern India; followed closely by Western India (43 per cent). Pune topped the city list for education-related discrepancies, followed by Mumbai and Delhi.

Courtesy: Times of India

Wipro too denies layoffs

MUMBAI: Employees with IT firms are spooked by fear of layoffs as demand for IT services slows down.


At some of the top IT firms, talk of layoffs among employees and repeated management clarifications are becoming a regular feature. The latest layoff buzz is coming from Wipro, the country’s third largest IT exporter.

Some employees believe the firm may ask as many as 3,000 to leave because of performance related issues.

Wipro’s HR head-Pratik Kumar has categorically denied this. “This is not true. We have no such plans,” he told ET, in response to a query on whether 3,000 employees with 2 and 2+ years of experience were under review for performance-related issues and could be asked to leave by December.

Wipro is not an isolated case. Recently, there was talk of Satyam laying off around 4,000 people and following reports in the media to that effect, the chairman Ramalinga Raju had sent a mail to all employees re-assuring them that prospects for the firm were bright and urging them not to pay attention to speculation in blogs and the media.

“The mail was sent out to reassure employees because there have been reports in the media that Satyam was handing out pink slips,” a Satyam spokesperson told ET.

India’s biggest IT exporter, Tata Consultancy Services, which has historically had the lowest attrition in the industry at around 10 per cent, reported a spike in its attrition rates to 13 per cent in its second-quarter figures.

The company’s global head-HR, Ajoyendra Mukherjee, was at pains to explain that the spike was not caused by any layoffs but because of certain BPO staffers it took on for a specific project.

“Normally, these staffers are taken on a temporary basis but because of the labour laws in South America we had to take them on our payroll. Th
ey were recruited for the duration of the project. Since attrition is calculated for the last 12 months, you will see a higher percentage even in the third,” he said.

At Wipro, the layoff ‘news’, which has been spreading through the informal grapevine, coincides with the performance-rating exercise the company does twice a year.

“These are not freshers but employees who have been given a ‘below expectations’ rating in more than a couple of appraisals. This is different from what was reported in the media in September--those people are still under review and the actual number is not 3,000 but closer to 1,000,” said one employee. A project manager with one of teams also had similar views.

Involuntary attrition rose to 2.5 per cent in the September quarter for Wipro. In the preceding six quarters, this figure was less than 1 per cent.

“Involuntary attrition of 2.5 per cent is due to performance and other aspects. Our process is very transparent, and employees are aware of where they stand. This is an exercise we do every year,” Kumar said.

To date, there have been fewer layoff rumours about Infosys but the company hasn’t been entirely insulated. Shortly after its Q2 results, there were rumours that it had asked 250-300 people to resign following the discontinuation or scaling down of a BPO project.

However, the top management denied the reports.

Courtesy: Times of India

Infy, TCS still upbeat on hiring

BANGALORE: Though the Indian IT services industry has been cautious in its forecast for growth, two of the country’s top three software exporter
s are not taking the foot off the pedal when it comes to hiring fresh engineering graduates for 2009-10.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the country’s largest software company, has made 24,789 technical campus offers for 2009-10, a 13 per cent increase over its intake of 22,000 for the current fiscal. Its closest rival, Infosys Technologies, will be making around 20,000 offers, an 18 per cent increase. However, No 3 Wipro is lowering the number of campus hires to 8,000 from 14,000.

Typically, IT firms offer jobs to engineering students a year in advance, when they have completed the third year of their course.

Though there has been apprehension that a number of IT companies would not honour their hiring commitments to students, there has been no evidence yet of companies going back on their offers. But there have been reports of some firms postponing joining dates.

“Last year, we made over 22,000 technical campus offers for FY09 employees. There is no delay in joining dates and employee additions are on course with our plans to add 30,000-35, 000 people in FY09,” TCS VP and head (global HR) Ajoy Mukherjee said. Infosys has said it will hire 25,000 staff on a gross basis this fiscal.

Adecco India CEO Sudhakar Balakrishnan says it is too early to comment on how campus hiring by the IT industry will be affected because there is no clarity on the impact of the current economic slowdown.

Courtesy: Times of India