Capgemini enters list of top 5 IT employers in India

French multinational consulting firm Capgemini has entered the big league of IT employers at No. 5, shaking up the pecking order of the largest IT-BPM employers for 2015-16 released by industry lobby Nasscom. Capgemini, which was the seventh largest employer in 2014-15, has displaced HCL Technologies to break into the top 5.

Srinivas Kandula, CEO, Capgemini India, said, “India is today the delivery backbone of the group and will continue to play a significant role going forward. We have consolidated our training facilities in Pune and Mumbai and training and development will be a key focus on the people front in India going forward.”

TCS remained the largest employer for 2015-16 while the Teaneck, New-Jersey headquartered Cognizant moved down to number three, making way for Sikka led Infosys, that stood second. Wipro remained the fourth largest employer, same as last year. The list also saw new entrants in Mumbai-based Intelenet Global Services that came in the 9th position while Canadian IT giant CGI sneaked into the top 20 list as the 20th largest employer.

These rankings come at a time when IT behemoths are reporting lacklustre numbers for the April-June quarter. Wipro announced a staid revenue growth with a 0-1% topline growth forecast for the next quarter. Infosys lowered guidance and TCS, the largest Indian software company, remained circumspect about the markets.

With tightening IT budgets and growing opportunities with digital, IT companies are trying to strike a balance between employing a highly skilled workforce and increasing automation. “We are investing heavily in skill development to ensure that we continue to upskill our talent base and create a high quality and performance oriented delivery organisation from India to support the Group in meeting its long-term business goals,” added Kandula.

The IT industry currently employs 3.7 million people with around 2 lakh net additions in 2015-16, lower than 2.2 lakh additions in 2014-15. The Indian IT-BPM industry would require 1.2-2 million employees to achieve revenues of $100 billion by 2025, a recent report jointly conducted by Nasscom and McKinsey reveals.

As companies resort to automation of entry level coding jobs, bench strength optimisation and a highly skilled workforce to take on high value jobs, IT recruitments are expected to fall this year. Nasscom president R Chandrasekhar, at the sidelines of the HR Summit held in Chennai, said, “Companies are focusing on increasing utilization levels and reducing bench strength. They are also adopting automation in a big way and reskilling their employees so as to increase the net productivity per employee.”

In a recent interaction to TOI, Saurabh Govil, chief human resources officer in Wipro said “The focus of the industry will be more on reskilling rather than hiring. Jobs at the bottom of the pyramid will be automated and existing people will have to equip themselves with newer skill sets that’s relevant to the emerging digital landscape and clients’ businesses. We are seeing the impact of this on fresher hiring.”