Information technology (IT) services major Wipro’s headcount decreased by 1,157 in the third quarter of fiscal 2024-25 (Q3FY25), reversing two consecutive quarters of employee additions.
"It's (headcount) driven by demand and productivity. And as we look into the coming quarter, this will get ironed out. So, that is more of a seasonal thing because the number of freshers we onboarded in Q3 purposefully was a smaller number than what we will onboard in Q4," Wipro's Chief Human Resources Officer Saurabh Govil told the Press after declaring Q3FY25 results.
He added that campus hiring for the current fiscal would be a shade less than 10,000. "We've done approximately 7,000 (till Q3). And we're looking at between 2,500-3,000 in the next quarter."
The development comes at a time when the Bengaluru-based company is reassessing its lateral and campus hiring models to focus on improving utilisation rate of employees amid lowering attrition, to grow margins.
The company had 2,32,732 employees at the end of the quarter, 6,923 fewer than the year-ago period.
Sequentially, Wipro's attrition rate increased to 15.3 percent in the last-twelve-month (LTM) basis. In Q2, the attrition rate was 14.5 percent.
The company said it will hire around 10,000-12,000 from campuses in FY26.
"Again, we don't want to go overboard and make offers that we can't absorb. So we have learned the lesson. We want to go more cautious, but more consistent. That's our approach," Govil added.
Wipro onboarded over 2,500-3,000 freshers in the second quarter. It onboarded 3,000 freshers in the June quarter.
Meanwhile, the company reported a 4.5 percent quarter-on-quarter increase in consolidated net profit to Rs 3,354 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2024, surpassing analysts’ expectations. The IT major's Q3 FY25 revenue remained flat at Rs 22,319 crore, growing 0.1 percent sequentially.
Analysts polled by Moneycontrol had estimated the company’s net profit to decline by 5 percent quarter-on-quarter to Rs 3,040 crore and revenue to dip by 0.6 percent to Rs 22,176 crore.
Wipro declared an interim dividend of Rs 6 per share and revised its capital allocation policy to commit at least 70 percent of net income as payouts over a three-year period.
Operating margin improved to 17.5 percent, the highest in three years, driven by operational efficiencies and cost optimisation.
Also, read: Wipro ADRs surge 4% after Q3 earnings beat, multi-year high margins
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