Infosys’ workforce saw a net reduction of 3,611 employees in the January to March 2023 period from the previous quarter, with its total strength declining to 343,234 by the end of the fiscal, the tech giant’s quarterly financial results showed on April 13.
Attrition at Infosys continued to slip for the third straight quarter and came in at 20.9 percent at the end of March 31, 2023 ended quarter.
Infosys Chief Executive Officer Salil Parekh said, "Will see how attrition plays out...We will make sure we moderate our hiring based on the demand environment."
The decline in employee headcount at Infosys compares to a net addition of 821 employees that Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) saw during the quarter. TCS, meanwhile, recorded attrition at 20.1 percent.
Following the drop in net headcount, Infosys management said, it has low utilisation and therefore, it will continue to focus on building talent via training. TCS, on the other hand, had said it was looking at
disciplined hiring.
Mitul Shah, Head of Research at Reliance Securities, has pointed out that despite the reduction of over 3,000 employees there is a pressure on the employee cost side.
Reflecting on top management level exits given two key leaders – Mohit Joshi and Ravi Kumar (joined as CEO of Cognizant) in the last three months, Parekh said, "We are fortunate to have large number of strong leaders across different levels... Have put in place a new structure on the FS side (after Joshi’s exit) and will do so on the delivery side as well (after Ravikumar’s exit)."
Parekh also said that the IT behemoth expects generative AI to bring more opportunities and that the firm is working with multiple platforms — open source as well as proprietary platforms.
“We have launched exciting programs with our clients leveraging generative AI platforms. As the environment has changed, we see strong interest from our clients for efficiency, cost and consolidation opportunities, resulting in a strong large deal pipeline. We have expanded our internal program on efficiency and cost to build a path to higher margins in the medium term. We continue to invest in our people and in supporting our clients," said Parekh, CEO and MD.
For Q4, Infosys has reported a 3.2 percent decline in constant currency revenue (adjusted for exchange rate fluctuations), which is the worst in at least a decade. TCS' constant currency revenue growth was also at an 11-quarter low.
For the full year, Infosys reported constant currency revenue growth of 15.4 percent missing its earlier guidance of 16-16.5 percent. The tech giant began the year with a 13-15 percent growth projection, and went on to increase guidance in every quarter thereafter.
