Infosys to recruit 30,000, give 14-17 pc raise

Infosys Technologies, India's second-largest software services company, will hire close to 30,000 this financial year to its existing headcount, as part of its business expansion plans.

The company, which hired around 27,000 last financial year, will hire more this time on the back of a positive outlook for the overall economy.

"Out of the 30,000, 5,500-6,000 will be taken through lateral entry, 16,000 will be added to our BPO subsidiary and the rest will be freshers," T V Mohandas Pai, member of the board and head-HRD, education and research of Infosys, said.

The software company, which is betting big on the overseas market as part of its business expansion plan, will also increase its headcount in these markets.

"We are planning to add around 700 in our Chinese facility, as the country remains an emerging market for Infosys. Moreover, the US facility will see an addition of around 1,000 and the Manila facility will see 400 in the current financial year," Pai added.

The IT services sector is looking up after the recent economic slowdown. According to Nasscom prediction, the industry is expected to witness double-digit growth in 2010. As the industry moves northward, IT companies are doling out wage hikes to retain their key talent. Infosys has announced a wage hike of 14-17 per cent for all Indian employees, with effect from April 1. In case of overseas employees, the effective salary hike will be in the range of two-three per cent, the company said.

"We have given hikes to all our employees to retain key human resources. While the hike for seniors is around 10 per cent, middle to lower rung employees have received a hike of 14-17 per cent," Pai said. The company will spend an additional $134 million in effecting the raise, Pai said adding, "this is one of the highest in the industry." He also said the company would make it expensive for competitors to poach its employees.

However, the salary hike will put a pressure on the margin in the range of 300 basis points, S Gopalakrishnan, MD and CEO of Infosys said.

In 2010-11, Infosys plans to invest about Rs 1,200 crore for capital expenditure plans. This is an increase of close to 85 per cent when compared with last year's capex of Rs 650 crore.