Fin services make hiring tough for IT industry
It may be India's biggest job provider, but the IT industry is facing tough competition from financial services sector in tapping the right talent, feels software giant Infosys chief Nandan Nilekani.
By PTI |
NEW DELHI: It may be India's biggest job provider, but the IT industry is facing tough competition from financial services sector in tapping the right talent, feels software giant Infosys chief Nandan Nilekani.
There is competition for the best of the best in the job market at the entry level and the financial services industry could lure them with higher salaries and a better glamour quotient, the Infosys CEO and Managing Director said during a conference call with analysts to discuss the company's quarterly results.
Nilekani said the entry level salaries at Infosys are being raised from Rs 2,40,000 per annum to Rs 2,70,000 per annum for the next year and this could go up further by 10 per cent after that.
Analysts believe that the higher salaries being offered in the IT space and the recent wage hikes announced by the likes of Infosys is also being influenced by other industries, in addition to the other players within the information technology sector.
"The entry level wages in the country are being influenced by only two industries -- IT and financial services," he said, adding these two are driving up the demand for entry level people with IT industry hiring the largest number of people.
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While IT industry could hire about 3,80,000 people this year, there would be 75,000 to 1,00,000 new hirings in the financial services space, he said. While both the industries are competing for the best talent, "the financial services could offer a slightly higher wage to grab them," Nilekani said.And certainly the glamour quotient of financial service industry is getting higher, because of the investment banking space and huge income earned by them, the Infosys chief said. Analysts and industry experts believe that Infosys' decision to raise the salaries might have been influenced by other industries and players as they seek people at the entry level.
Nilekani warned that it could be much more challenging for other industries in the country to get right talent going forward, as they could find it hard to match the soaring wage levels and competition offered by the financial services and IT sectors.
"Right now, the retail industry is hiring but they are not able to get employees," Nilekani said. The construction industry is not getting people because all the engineers want to join IT and the situation cannot get any more difficult for the manufacturing industries, he said.
Nilekani expects this situation to lead to a new phenomenon called "right-skilling" in the next three-four years, when companies would start identifying people for the right time and not getting over-qualified people to do the work.
This would be in contrast to the current trend where Indian industry has been traditionally a place where over-qualified people are hired to do more mundane work, he said.
While terming right-skilling as a solution for the whole industry, Nilekani expressed confidence that Infosys would be at the "top of the heap" in the new scenario.
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