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Tech Mahindra to turn to campuses

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Sapna Agarwal Pune
Last Updated : Jun 14 2013 | 5:58 PM IST
By reducing lateral hiring, it hopes to cut the cost per candidate.
 
In a bid to cut down on manpower/employee costs and attrition rates, Tech Mahindra is increasing campus level hiring while reducing its lateral hiring to reach an optimum mix of 60-70 per cent recruitments from the campuses in the coming years.
 
The shift in focus from lateral hiring to campus recruitments will yield the company cost savings of 30-40 per cent per candidate hired from campuses, as compared to lateral hiring.
 
"There is a salary difference of 30-40 per cent between candidates that have less than one year's experience and those with three to four years of experience," explains L K Bhatia, vice-president and head of the resource management group at Tech Mahindra.
 
Campus recruits also help the company to bring down the overall attrition rate, since the attrition rate among campus hires is 8-10 per cent whereas at the lateral level it is 15-20 per cent, according to industry sources.
 
Moreover, now that the company has become a known brand, it is attracting better talent. Notes Bhatia: "Training at base level is easier for campus recruits as compared to lateral hires."
 
This year (2006-07) the company is planning to increase its work force by 10,000 t6 12,000 people. From 4,610 people in 2003-04, Tech Mahindra grew modestly to become a 5,617 people company in 2004-05. But by the end of 2006-07, the number of employees had sky-rocketted to 19,700.
 
For the next financial year, Bhatia reveals, "we are looking at a net manpower increase of 40-45 per cent over the previous year, as we will add 10,000 to 12,000 people to our workforce and become a 30,000-32,000 people company."
 
Already, 60 per cent of the company's workforce consists of people from outside the tier I cities, as it has established tie-ups with over 220 colleges spread across 72 locations.
 
Last year the company hired 4,000 candidates (40 per cent of its manpower requirements) from campus placements and this year it expects to increase campus recruitment to 5,500 people (50 per cent of its total manpower needs for the year).
 
The ramping up of staff strength is in line with an increase in its revenues from $281 million in 2005-06 to $648 million in 2006-07, a growth of more than 100 per cent.
 
Over the past two years, Tech Mahindra has acquired two companies-"" Axes Technologies and iPolicy Networks"" besides forming a joint venture with Motorola, CanvasM. Tech Mahindra listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange in August 2006 at Rs 350. Last week its shares traded at Rs 1,484.
 
Tech Mahindra, earlier known as Mahindra British Telecom, is a leader in providing telecommunication engineering technology, and mobile application development.

 
 

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First Published: Jun 06 2007 | 12:00 AM IST

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