Capgemini plans to hire about 30,000 people in India in 2021, a 25% increase from last year, underscoring the French information technology (IT) services provider and consulting firm’s bullish business prospects amid a pandemic-induced surge in demand for digital solutions.
“The hiring reflects our strong revenue growth guidance of 7-9% for 2021,” Ashwin Yardi, chief executive of Capgemini in India, said in an interview. “The people will be a 50:50 mix of both freshers and laterals”.
With 125,000 employees, India is the single-largest talent hub for the Paris-based firm, which has a total headcount of about 270,000. The company hired nearly 24,000 people in India last year.
Yardi said this year’s hiring will be across emerging digital skills such as cloud, engineering and research and development, artificial intelligence (AI), 5G, edge computing and cybersecurity. Digital and cloud comprised 65% of Capgemini’s revenue in the December quarter.
Capgemini is the latest IT company to forecast large expansions in the workforce this year in anticipation of winning large contracts from clients as business gradually rebounds to pre-covid levels.
Infosys Ltd said it will hire 24,000 college graduates in the country in 2021-22, up from 15,000 in the current fiscal. Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp., which has over 200,000 people in India, expects to hire more than 23,000 people in 2021, a 35% increase from last year.
Capgemini has meanwhile been offering both financial and soft perks to contain attrition. During the peak of the pandemic last April, the company announced pay hikes for all its employees. “We follow an April-March pay plan cycle, and we will continue to follow that,” Yardi said.
