IT employees are getting up to 20%-60% salary hike; do you have the required skills?

Do you know,

• Jobs requiring AI and ML skills will grow 71% in the next 5 years
• The data scientist will be the highest paying job in 2021
• DevOps will be the main hiring criteria for 46% of the IT companies
• The robotics process automation market will double in 2021
• Salaries have soared by 20%-60% over 2020 for niche tech skills
• Due to the shortage of cybersecurity professionals industry can fill only 50% of jobs

We bet, these intriguing facts (reported by Teamlease) must have left you in awe. But, they reflect the reality that the companies are having the warcry of ramping up their hiring and, thus, IT professionals with digital skills are being flooded with job offers amidst a war for technical talent. All organizations including big and small corporates and even funded startups are offering salaries way more than the market price, in order to have revenue growth. Entire industries in the Indian economy in financial services, business services, educational services, technical services, social assistance, tourism industry, etc. are up and ready for it. This is set to increase the industry revenue manifolds, making the Information Technology (IT) sector even bigger!

As there is a notice period of 60-90 days in most companies, the IT candidates utilize that time in shopping for better offers and counteroffers after having resigned from their current roles. But all this is because there is a mismatch between the demand and supply of the required IT professionals. Hence, this article gives you all the knowledge of the whys and the hows of this mismatch, about the IT industry and IT jobs in the country, and what skills you should have in order to be part of the cream.

IT Industry: 2020 vs 2021

In March 2020, most technology firms had stopped their hiring, while some also retrenched their staff in anticipation of tough times due to the Covid-19 pandemic impacting businesses worldwide. Exactly one year later, the situation is totally the reverse of what it was. MNCs, IT companies, and startups are facing off against each other in an IT talent war as candidates are juggling between 4 to 5 job offers at one point of time, as against in 2019 when they accepted whatever that was offered to them.

For instance, TCS onboarded more than 20,000 new employees in the previous quarter. Others like Genpact, Capgemini, and Publicis Sapient also look to ramp up their hiring in the near future.

Market having become candidate-driven, most tech companies look to hire business leaders and those with specific engineering skills like that in advanced technologies and artificial intelligence. Startups, especially in the ed-tech, food, and health tech segments, are seeing increases in annual growth rates and are, thus, expected to continue hiring. 

IT salaries in 2021: IT employees are demanding hikes in their salaries ranging from 50% to 70%, while they switch jobs. The hike percentage was only between 15% and 30% before Covid-19. Recruiters say that the salaries are 20% to 60% higher than the previous year, depending on skill sets. Many tech employers like Infosys, Accenture, and TCS have given multiple increments within a year in order to hold on to high performers. Thus, improving the IT industry's growth.

Jobs, jobs everywhere...

The IT and Business Process Management (IT-BPM industry), combined, have employed 4.5 million people until March 2021, (according to the industry body, Nasscom). This number stood at 1.38 Lakh in the previous fiscal.

And in this financial year, IT services companies, alone, are expected to add more than 1,00,000 people owing to the increase in demand for people with digital tech skills. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), which is India’s largest IT services company, aims at hiring more than 40,000 freshers from campuses this year. According to another report, IT and IT functional jobs have increased by more than 52% in June 2021 as compared to in June 2019. 

The studies show that as against an ever-increasing demand for digital tech skills personnel, the actual supply of them is nowhere even close to the requirement.

...but not a candidate to fill

However, the required personnel is not available in abundance and this required talent crunch has led companies to tap smaller towns. The companies are upskilling their employees on their own and/or in collaboration with some industry bodies such as Nasscom in order to ensure that the workforce is relevant. According to Nasscom, the industry, which is in the process of upskilling over 2.5 Lakh employees in tech-digital skills, has hired over 40,000 digitally trained freshers. 

In 2021, more than 70% of tech employers are facing skill shortages. The skill gap continues partially because the changes in technology exceed the skill development programs. Also, it is difficult to attract prospective employees who possess the right skills, and a lack of investment in training is leading to the skills gap.

All about the demand-supply gap and attrition rates

The gap already existed at a very low level, but the gap is worsening as the demand for tech skills is, now, not restricted to technology companies. Every business is going digital - retailers who were selling offline have made their way online in order to have continued sales. This means that they are either putting a tech team in place or outsourcing it to small firms, which also have to ramp up their employee headcount in order to meet the demand levels. For example, GoFrugal Technologies provides point-of-sale solutions to retail companies. In July last year, it saw signs of revival of the market and, thus, started hiring then itself. And so, it has increased its headcount by almost 40% in the year gone by.

IT services companies have signaled that the attrition rates, as well as employee expenses, would jump to new highs in the coming quarters, as they decide to roll out another round of salary hikes. Recently, Accenture reported that the attrition rates have gone back to the pre-Covid levels to 17%.

New Jersey-based IT services provider, Teaneck’s total attrition rate in the January-March quarter stood at 21% as against 19% in the October-December quarter, and the voluntary attrition rate stood at 18%. The company made more than 28,000 campus offers across the country in order to meet the growing demand. This is a significant number as the company had to reject a huge deal as it was unable to find people to implement the contracts that it had won in Europe. 

The Indian landscape: IT jobs and skills 

TCS believes that there is no dearth of supply of talent in India and the competitive salaries is the reason why global firms are eyeing India’s talent. Further, the pandemic has dismissed any notions that the companies may have had regarding the effectiveness of such employees as they worked from home. This has also led to the setting up of tech centers of some European & American firms in India while the existing ones increasing their presence. 

Another factor that may be fuelling the demand for such talent in the country is that a great number of tech workers of Eastern Europe, who worked in the UK and continental Europe, have moved back home and are most unlikely to go back. However, this has created a supply gap in those countries.

Talking of the growth in demand, here are some skills and its surge last year:

Surprisingly due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the employment rate increase in the huge sector of IT is not likely to shrink any time soon, as per industry insiders. One of the fastest-growing industries in the business sector of the world is seeing job growth and is set to see a good revenue upsurge. On top of it, the promising prediction of the Indian economy is a strong indication for you to invest in IT skills that can land you a high-paying job.

Some other articles that might pique your interest:

• Top 5 Freelance Artificial Intelligence jobs to watch out for in 2021
• Indian IT Sector on a hiring spree | Makes 70,000 positions available for recruitment
• The future of Data Scientists: Will the next decade witness a complete extinction?
• Bharat Dynamics Limited invites B.Tech and MBA students to apply for 40 Management Trainee posts
• Procter and Gamble (P&G) is hiring interns in 2021, Apply here!