Infosys net addition of employees in the October to December 2022 period took a major hit, slipping 84 percent to 1,627 from over 10,000 in the previous quarter of the fiscal, according to the tech giant’s quarterly earning report. However, its attrition rate has come down to 24.3 percent from 27.10 percent in the July to September quarter.

Infosys' hiring for the three month period is the lowest in nine quarters. It's only higher than the July to September 2021 quarter when the tech behemoth has saw its total headcount increase by 975 employees. At the end of December 2022-ended quarter, the firm's total staff headcount stood at 3,46,845.

Infosys Chief Financial Officer Nilanjan Roy, meanwhile, said the firm should be able to meet its hiring target of 50,000 employees in FY23 as it is currently at around 46,000 with respect to fresh hiring.

The company's voluntary attrition continued to decline for the second quarter as per management expectations laid out earlier. Following the Q3 results announcement, Infosys CEO Salil Parekh noted that the quarterly annualised attrition is down 6 percent and is below 20 percent.

The IT firm expects attrition to continue on a downward trajectory while policies are being in place to ensure it eases, Parekh said. He, however, did not comment on what the 2023-2024 fiscal would look like and said the firm would look at it end of the year.

Infosys' massive drop in hiring compares to its peer Tata Consultancy Services' (TCS) net reduction of 2,197 employees in the quarter under review while the latter's attrition slowed down marginally to 21.3 percent.

Commenting to moonlighting, which became highly prevalant in the tech sector following the COVID-19 induced lockdown, Roy said the firm has made its stance clear and built internal capabilities to support gig workers.

Infosys wants to ensure that client confidentiality is always maintained and also that ensure employees have an opportunity to improve and enhance their learnings, he said.

Infosys reported a net profit of Rs 6,586 crore during the December quarter, surpassing a CNBC-TV18 poll projection of Rs 6,480 crore. Infosys' revenue in US Dollar terms increased 2.3 percent compared to the September quarter. The $4,659 million figure was marginally higher than the CNBC-TV18 poll of $4,621 million.

In constant currency terms, Infosys witnessed revenue growth of 2.4 percent on a sequential basis. The growth was much higher than street expectations of 1.2 percent. The company also outperformed TCS for the third quarter in a row which reported constant currency revenue growth of 2.2 percent.

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At $3.3 billion, large deal Total Contract Value (TCV) for Infosys was the strongest in eight quarters. The figure was also higher than the September quarter figure of $2.7 billion and the average of the last four quarters, which was $2.1 billion. It is also important to note that the company only reports deals which are in excess of $50 million.

MD and CEO Parekh said that the company continues to gain market share as evident from the TCV figure.

Technology bellwether, meanwhile, raised its full year revenue guidance and maintained its guidance for EBIT margins after its net profit for the December quarter managed to exceed street expectations.

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First Published:Jan 12, 2023 4:10 PM IST