Information technology major Wipro has asked candidates who have successfully completed their training and who were offered Rs 6.5 lakh per annum earlier whether they would be willing to take up projects for an annual compensation of Rs 3.5 lakh. Wipro told Business Standard that it had to adjust its onboarding plans "in the light of the changing macro environment and, as a result, our business needs". "Like others in our industry, we continue to assess global economies and customer needs, which factor in our hiring plans.
India Inc is not in the dark about moonlighting employees. According to a forensic accountant, companies can easily turn to experts and deploy digital tools that can be used to check if an employee is doing a second job or not - reaffirming fears of many who are wary of the practice in the context of the recent sacking of moonlighters by IT major Wipro. Arpinder Singh, global markets and India leader, forensic and integrity services, EY, said that EY had been involved with several companies to gauge moonlighting.
Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Meta, summed it up well as he explained the reason for the company sacking 13 per cent of its employees. He said no one predicted that the boom for digital services during the Covid pandemic would die out. "Many people predicted this would be a permanent acceleration that would continue even after the pandemic ended.
'It's a big technology company and may offer good remuneration, but stability in my career is equally important to me.'
Employee costs for Indian IT services players have touched an all-time high as salaries soar in their effort to retain talent. Engineer salaries are going through the roof. According to a news report, Infosys, which reported a 27.7 per cent attrition rate for the fourth quarter of FY22, plans to have an average salary hike of 12-13 per cent. High potential employees will get increases of 22-23 per cent.
Eventually it boils down to whether Board compensation committees whose job is to fix salary levels have the power to question the CEO, especially owner-CEOs.
"The general benchmark that we are getting to hear is in the range of 5-15 per cent. Clearly, the 30-40 per cent hike days are behind us. Along with the slowdown in the US markets, there is a general mismatch in demand and supply. I think firms are being cautious before announcing huge hikes," says Shiv Aggarwal, CEO of ABC Consultants.
'The people let off by the NBFCs have little bargaining power and willingly settle for a 20% to 25% cut in their existing salaries when hunting for new jobs.'
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