L&T's software arm to hire 3,800 freshers as it sees order book swelling

Engineering major L&T's software arm LTI will be hiring around 3,800 freshers this fiscal as it expects the business to grow at a faster clip, a top official has said.

The company is working at a very high utilisation level now and wants to hire more to get down the level, chief executive Sanjay Jalona said.

"We will be hiring 3,700-3,800 freshers this fiscal year as against the 3,000 freshers we hired in FY19," he told PTI over the phone.

Additionally, it will also hire laterally as well as per project requirements on a "just-in-time" basis, he said.

Asked whether the necessary talent is available on call, especially given the fact that a lot many companies are depending on the just-in time hiring model, Jalona said talent is the biggest issue which keeps him awake and the concerns have only aggravated lately.

 

In FY19, the industry added 1.7 lakh new jobs, according to industry lobby Nasscom.

However, industry executives keep expressing concerns over the quality of the manpower available and doubt their skillsets are enough for a dynamically changing industry.

In the year to March 2019, Jalona said LTI has hired over 4,000 people on a net basis, of which 656 were in the fourth quarter alone.

The utilisation rates including trainees had stood at over 82 percent, and the company decided to ramp up hiring, even at the cost of compromising the margin, Jalona said.

The high utilisation is very "unhealthy" for a company of its size which is growing, he added.

LTI reported a 31 percent growth in March quarter net at Rs 378.5 crore on a faster revenue accretion.

Overall revenue grew 29.3 percent during the fiscal to Rs 9,445 crore.

Jalona said the demand environment is healthy for FY20 as the average contracted value during the quarter stood at a healthy $100 million per client.