Telltale Signs of a Slowdown in IT Services Business
In spite of most IT companies claiming that they're on strong ground in spite of recessionary pressures in the West, cracks are appearing
Over the past several weeks, we have reported instances of Indian IT giants literally sweeping away any fears of recession, claiming that they had hedged the risks. However, we could be seeing some telltale signs of the ground realities. In addition to businesses reducing annual hikes to skirting performances bonuses, there are now reports of delayed hirings.
Off late, we have seen a trend of fresh graduates who were selected from campuses complaining on social platforms about delays in receiving job offers. Also, these aren’t 30 to 60 day delays but actually in excess of five to six months. Of course, HR managers pooh-pooh this idea and tell us that such delays are a part and parcel of hirings as they need to do a lot of back end work before recruits can be placed at the right locations and in the right positions.
Candidates are candid about it
A quick review of LinkedIn, indicated that things aren’t as rosy as it appears. A young graduate from Bengaluru claimed that a job offer made in March by Infosys hadn’t materialized till date and there was no communication from the other end about the offer letter, the causes of delay or whether something would actually turn up in the near future.
In fact, one came upon similar reactions on Twitter as well where a student claimed that the company that had made her the offer responded asking for additional information about the candidate. However, post that communication, things once again went silent, which is what appears to be bothering most aspirants now.
Another candidate stated on LinkedIn that while a response was received from one of the companies, the others had not bothered following up, in spite of a formal offer some months back. “If these chaps have a problem, isn’t it better to let us know so that we can seek alternative options? Why keep us in the dark,” says a Chennai resident who got selected off the campus of his college located on the outskirts of the city.
However, some of the companies that we reached out to did mention that they were asked to take their foot off the accelerator when it came to campus hiring, but that had nothing to do with any reduced demand for resources. “In fact, it is more to do with getting the right position for the candidate and ensuring that their onboarding process is completed on time,” says a senior HR director of a Delhi-based knowledge company.
In fact, a report published in the BusinessLine quoted senior officials at Wipro as stating that the company proposed to honor every offer letter that they’ve made. The came was similar with HCL which said there was no change in their onboarding plans and that these were happening as per schedule.
In a statement, Infosys said “Hiring at Infosys is always aligned to client requirements through the year and consequently, we spread the joining dates of various batches to align with changes in project schedules and to also ensure employees have access to the right training. In the interim, teams continuously engage with these prospective employees.”
