Cognizant plans to hire 28,000 freshers from campuses in 2021

Given the surge in demand for digital skills amidst the global pandemic, the information technology sector in the country is witnessing a revolutionary shift, in terms of demand for new-age digital skills. Due to increasing attrition rates in some of the most coveted IT giants locally and globally, they are now on the lookout to hire more freshers to narrow down the gap between demand and supply. Indian IT giants like Infosys, TCS, Wipro, and HCL Tech are on a hiring spree and are likely to hire over 1 lakh freshers cumulatively in 2021-22.

New Jersey-based IT giant Cognizant, who hired 17,000 freshers in 2020 in India, is now looking forward to hiring 28,000 freshers from colleges in 2021. This significant decision came in after the company’s voluntary attrition percentage dramatically rose from 10% in Q3CY2020 to 18% in Q1CY21.

Rajesh Nambiar, India’s chairman, and managing director, Cognizant informs that the company’s brand perception has grown significantly

“Our campus acceptance rate amongst all India’s top engineering colleges has risen more. And now it’s roughly about 81%. It’s up 10 percentage points since 2019”, added Nambiar.

On Cognizant’s decision to hire 28,000 freshers, the CEO, Brian Humphries stated that the company is taking the correct step to address attrition and is also working towards managing “the salary inflationary elements of this.”

As the IT major follows a two-month notice period in India, Cognizant will see an increase in attrition based on the resignations in the last few months, informs Humphries.

“So, we have a strong understanding as to what attrition will be in Q2. But that’s been factored into our model and into our guidance. And in the meantime, we’ve been hiring at record pace given the extra recruiters we’ve put to work,” he said.

TCS, Wipro, Capgemini, Cognizant to hire 40,000 graduates each across campuses despite COVID mayhem

Out Of 21% Attrition, 18% Was Voluntary

The COVID-19 pandemic has escalated the demand for skilled techies with excellent digital skills. The IT giants are even willing to pay a hefty amount of money for these roles.

According to Rajesh Nambiar, the major issue that Cognizant is dealing with in this current scenario is of losing skilled, talented employees rather than attracting them.

Director of Randstad India, Yeshab Giri says, “Covid has opened up IT in a big way. Now, everyone is willing to pay big bucks for good IT talent because the demand is huge and supply is less. For every 10 job offers made, 4-5 of them are turning down the offer. This is quite high and difficult for both us and the companies we recruit for to manage.”

Cognizant, in its first quarter of Jan-Mar, witnessed a total attrition rate of 21%, out of which 18% attrition was voluntary.

According to Nambiar, the most significant reason behind this high attrition rate is the increase in competition for procuring the best digital talent, across the market today.

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To attract the right talent, the company is working towards setting up internal initiatives and incentives, by investing in-vitro, on employees via training, job rotation, as well as targeted salary hikes and promotions.

“We’re also shifting to a quarterly promotion cycle to all the billable associates and ramping up our hiring capacity by adding hundreds of recruiters,” added Nambiar.

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