IT majors like Infosys, Wipro, TCS leave 10,000 freshers in limbo as onboarding deferred

Data from the IT employee union Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate showed that India’s leading IT firms delayed onboarding of freshers.

Indian IT firms like Infosys, Wipro and TCS have been reportedly deferring the onboarding of freshers owing to which many are left in flux as they do not have definite joining dates. A Times of India report cited data from the IT employee union Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES) which showed that India’s leading IT firms delayed the onboarding of at least 10,000 freshers.

In FY24, Infosys hired only 11,900 campus recruits- a decrease of 76% compared to 50,000 freshers that the company hired in the previous year.

President of NITES Harpreet Singh Saluja said that complaints were received from candidates who were offered positions at companies like TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Zensar and LTIMindtree.

This comes as the combined headcount of TCS, Infosys, and Wipro dropped by nearly 64,000 in the financial year ended in March.

Delays at Infosys

In a recent email, Infosys informed these candidates as per the report, “We will allocate the DOJ (date of joining) brd on business requirements and the DOJ will be sent at least 3-4 weeks prior to joining.” In FY24, Infosys hired only 11,900 campus recruits- a decrease of 76% compared to 50,000 freshers that the company hired in the previous year.

Similar pattern seen at Wipro

Wipro has not fulfilled campus offers made two years ago. Wipro CHRO Saurabh Govil said earlier, “The year before last, we went to campus and made many offers. We are yet to honour those. We will finish those offers and then hire new freshers. We will induct freshers this year, but we cannot give a number as the macro environment is uncertain.”

Krishna Vij, business head of IT staffing at Team lease, said that “around 3-5% of freshers hired by the top IT services companies in 2022 are yet to be onboarded. This could be due to lack of project visibility, and employers focus on the required skill sets and job readiness of the candidates.”