India’s IT services provider company, Wipro executive chairman Rishad Premji said that IT companies are currently facing a huge challenge. The challenge of building a sense of connectedness between their employees and the organization.
Rishad Premji while addressing the Nasscom Product Conclave 2022 said, “Of its 260,000 strong workforces, around 100,000 are new recruits who have joined in the last 30 months.”
“We have less than 10 percent of people coming in and we have 30 percent of our people living in tier II and tier III cities which are their hometowns”, Rishad Premji added.
He further said, “How you drive that deep sense of connectedness is a big challenge. One of the ways we do it is through sessions; we connect with people by eating out.”
Earlier, Wipro Chairman Rishad Premji said the company sacked its top 20 leaders in ten minutes.
Speaking at the Nasscom Product Conclave, he said, “We made that decision in 10 minutes. It was an important role that this person ran for the organisation but when the times are tough, and you have to make those tough calls.”
“There is a zero-tolerance policy for any form of integrity violation, any form of harassment. You can be me in the company, and I won’t have a job if I violate one of those two,” Premji said.
“We found that out and that person got fired effective immediately. This person was well connected and reached out through every form of medium to put a lot of pressure on the organisation to give him a clean, relieving certificate. We said we are black and white about this,” he said, asking startups to make tough calls.
In his advice to startups, he said they must focus on building valuable businesses instead of valuation. He added that founders must choose the right people for the companies.
“This is an obsession today on the unicorn status and how much you’re valued at… the journey to build sustainable businesses is long, it’s complex, it’s slow at times. If your journey is to make money quickly, the kind of organisation you will build is very different than an organisation that you want to last,” he said.
“The most dangerous people in organisations are people who are incredibly successful but leave 1,000 dead bodies on the way while they succeed. But that’s not sustainable. I think, in large organisations, it doesn’t take you very far. It only takes you to a certain point,” he added.
Earlier, Wipro laid off 300 employees who were found working with its competitor companies at the same time employment with Wipro.
Wipro Chairman Rishad Premji said on 21 September that their employment has been terminated for an “act of integrity violation”.
Earlier, Wipro chairman Rishad Premji also described moonlighting as “cheating plain and simple.”
Hiring was at a slower pace for the quarter ending September 30, 2022. Wipro added 605 new employees. As of September 30, 2022, Wipro’s employee count in IT services increased to 259,179 from 258,574 at the end of June.
The company has reported an Attrition Rate of 23%, moderating slightly from 23.3% in the previous quarter.
