IT firms on hiring spree to beef up bench strength

Domestic IT firms are continuing their hiring spree, but it is their bench strength - reserve employees - that is growing at a higher rate than the overall pace of recruitments.

The total headcount of the fab-five club of Indian IT space - TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Satyam and HCL Tech - has increased by nearly 38% with the addition of more than 75,000 employees in the past one year.

At the same time, the bench strength of the top five players has grown at a higher rate of 48.5% with approximately 28,000 employees being added to their reserves during the same period.

The high levels of attrition and job-poaching prevalent in the technology sector has always forced companies to maintain a strong bench staff team with them - which enables them to cope up with any sudden outgo of employees as well as in the times of any major contract win that requires a bigger talent pool.

However, the trend has been further shifting toward maintaining a bigger bench strength in the recent past, an analysis of total hiring patterns of the country's top five IT firms over the past one year shows.