Dates changed but everyone with offer will join: Infosys CEO on 2022-batch onboarding delays

New Delhi: Infosys CEO Salil Parekh has indicated that offers given to freshers will be honoured by the company and followed by joining, although there has been some change in dates.

The comments by the Infosys top honcho assumes significance amid reports that the company has delayed onboarding of 2,000 fresh engineering graduates from the 2022 batch.

"Every offer that we have given, that offer will be (for) someone who will join the company. We changed some dates but beyond that everyone will join Infosys and there is no change in that approach," Parekh told PTI in response to a question on reported delays in onboarding of 2,000 fresh engineering graduates for two years.

The Bengaluru-headquartered IT company has an overall employee base of 3.15 lakh as on June 2024.

Recently, IT and ITES union Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES) had filed a complaint with the Ministry of Labour and Employment against Infosys for delaying the onboarding of 2,000 engineering graduates selected for system engineer and digital specialist engineer roles during the 2022-23 recruitment drive.

"These graduates, after being issued offer letters as early as April 2022, have been subjected to continuous delays in the onboarding process, unpaid pre-training programmes, and unexpected additional assessments. Despite fulfilling all requirements on their part, these professionals have been kept in limbo for more than two years...," NITES had said.

Infosys had earlier said it expects to hire 15,000-20,000 freshers depending on the growth during the year.

Infosys beat expectations with its Q1 report card this time as it reported 7 per cent rise in consolidated net profit at Rs 6,368 crore and raised its growth outlook for the full financial year. For the current fiscal year, the company raised revenue growth guidance to 3-4 per cent from 1-3 per cent projected earlier.

The company's headcount fell about 6 per cent to 3,15,332 in June 2024 quarter from 3,36,294 a year ago. The headcount fell marginally from 3,17,240 in the previous quarter.

The company has increased the utilisation level of employees to 83.9 per cent from 78.9 per cent on a year-on-year basis.

"Our utilisation is already at 85 per cent. So we have little headroom now left. So you know, as we start seeing growth... we are looking at hiring 15,000 to 20,000 freshers this year depending on... how we see the growth," Infosys Chief Financial Officer Jayesh Sanghrajka had said during the company's Q1 results.