Wipro sees headcount decline for the third consecutive quarter, ends Q1FY24 with 8,812 fewer employees

Wipro's quarterly annualised attrition is at an 8-quarter-low of 14 percent.

Bengaluru-based IT major Wipro saw its headcount decline for the third consecutive quarter, ending the June quarter with 8,812 fewer employees than the previous quarter. With this, the company’s headcount stands at 2,49,758. In contrast, during the same period last year, Wipro added 15,446 employees.

At the same time, the company's attrition numbers have continued their downward trend, with the trailing-twelve-month rate coming in at 17.3 percent in Q1FY24, down from 19.2 percent in the preceding quarter.

Its quarterly annualised attrition is at an 8-quarter-low of 14 percent.

Wipro recently integrated its Indian business from state-run enterprises (ISRE) sector with its broader IT Services segment, leading to headcount for that segment also being added to the total. While it had shown its headcount last quarter at 2,56,921, the same has now been revised to 2,58,570 to account for the integration of the ISRE business.

In the last fiscal, Wipro’s headcount addition in each subsequent quarter fell precipitously — where it added over 15,000 employees in the first quarter, 605 in the second, and saw a decline of 435 and 1823 respectively in the third and fourth quarters. The company previously cited the number of people it added in FY22 and the first quarter of FY23 as one of the reasons for not adding headcount.

However, hiring is an indicator of demand. As demand has fallen, hiring numbers were not expected to be significant across companies.

Last quarter, Wipro Chief Human Resources Officer Saurabh Govil told Moneycontrol that it was not backfilling all attrition, especially if people are on the bench.

It is crucial, as Wipro has a large bench. Net utilisation excluding trainees this quarter stands at 83.7 percent.

The wide bench is also why Wipro has not gone to campuses in FY23 to recruit freshers. Its graduate recruits—those it calls next-gen associates—from FY22 are still waiting to be onboarded. The company has previously maintained that it will honour all offers made, but has not committed to any date.

Wipro did not onboard any freshers in Q1, Chief Human Resources Officer Saurabh Govil said, maintaining that they will onboard as per business requirements.

Among Wipro's peers, TCS saw a net addition of 523 employees, while HCL Technologies ended the quarter with 2,500 fewer employees.

The company reported revenue of $2.78 billion for the fourth quarter, down 2.8 percent in constant currency terms. Its EBIT margins came in at 16 percent.