IT Major, Wipro Chairman Rishad Premji said that the hybrid work model will continue, the pandemic is changing the talent base.
He further said that currently close to 35-40 percent of employees are moved to hometowns and working remotely from there, and most of them want to continue that option.
Many women employees want to work on a permanent basis from home. There are others who would like to come back to offices yet with the flexibility to work from anywhere.
Premji also said that companies will have to work on creating stronger engagement with employees in order to retain talent. Employees need to communicate and connect with each other to foster a sense of belonging with their companies.
Commenting on talent crunch he said, “Companies that win the war for talent will be the winners amid the rising demand for technology professionals and as demand outstrips supply,”
“To meet the demand, Wipro is doubling down on its fresher hiring and is looking to add 17,000 new hires in FY22, up from 9,000 the previous year,” he added.
Its peers in the information technology sector have also increased their talent intake. The top four IT firms together have doubled fresher hiring to 1.6 lakh in FY22 from 82,000 in the previous year. Companies are also facing severe attrition, resulting in wage inflation.
“So there’s a lot of effort being put at multiple different levels and we were spending an inordinate amount of time and money trying to reskill and upskill people,” Premji said.
Earlier, Accenture India Chairperson Rekha Menon had said that India’s demand for tech talent is currently eight times more than the current supply.
“As we work remotely, you need very different leadership skills like critical thinking and reasoning,” she said while adding that she had already started to hire people from liberal arts and anthropology as a creative and multidisciplinary approach is what the industry needs.
