Infosys's attrition rate crosses 20%

Even as high attrition rates continue to haunt Infosys, the country's second-largest IT services firm is confident of bringing it down to 12-14% in the next two quarters as it gets back to the growth trajectory.

The attrition level grew higher to 20.1% in the July-September 2014 quarter as compared to 19.5% in the April-June 2014 quarter and 17.3% in Q2 last fiscal. In comparison, TCS had reported an attrition rate of 12%, while that at Wipro (IT services) and HCL Services stood at about 16% and 15%, respectively, in the April-June 2014 quarter (last 12 month basis). Historically, attrition rates have hovered around the 12-14% range. Infosys made a gross addition of 14,255 employees (net addition of 4,127) during the quarter under review, taking its total headcount to 1,65,411 as of September 30, 2014. Infosys chief operating officer Pravin Rao said.  The firm has already given about 12,000 promotions in April; Infosys had announced a wage hike of 6-7% for offshore employees and 1-2% onsite employees. Analysts had expected the country's second-largest IT exporter to post attrition of around 22% in the second quarter, despite CEO Vishal Sikka engaging with employees, and promoting around 5,000 employees since he took over. Infosys has grappled with rising attrition over the past year, and saw several high-profile exits.

Infosys said it has increased its utilization rate to 75.2% (including trainees) in the said quarter, while that excluding trainees stood at 82.3%. However, most analysts believe that Infosys will be able to slow the exits by the end of the third quarter in December.