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L&T Infotech To Hire 3,800 Freshers This Fiscal As It Sees Order Book Swelling

CEO Sanjay Jalona said the demand environment is healthy for FY20.

People working on computers in an office (Photographer: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg)
People working on computers in an office (Photographer: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg)

Engineering major Larsen & Toubro’s software arm L&T Infotech Ltd. will be hiring around 3,800 freshers this fiscal as it expects the business to grow at a faster clip.

The company is working at a very high utilisation level now and wants to hire more to reduce the level, Chief Executive Officer 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.

In the year to March 2019, Jalona said LTI 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.

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.

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