Infosys headcount drops by 5,423 in Q4, fifth consecutive quarter of decline

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IT services giant Infosys reported a plunge in headcount by 5,423 in the fourth quarter ended March 31. This is the fifth consecutive quarter of headcount decline for the company.

In fact, the company’s full year headcount for FY24 too declined by 25,994, for the first time in at least 23 years since 2001, driven by the Infosys’ changing hiring model as it looks to focus more on improving utilisation rate.

The total headcount for the FY24 stood at 317,240, this is a 7.5 percent decrease from the previous year’s numbers.

The attrition rate for Q4 on the last twelve-month basis was down to 12.6 percent, from 12.9 percent in the previous quarter.

Also read: More than half of our freshers were hired off campus: Infosys CFO

Jayesh Sanghrajka, CFO, Infosys said, "Our utilisation rate has improved from 77 percent utilisation including trainees in the beginning of the year. The growth environment was also very different at that point so we had guided differently. We had to realign some of those factors as the growth environment changed. Our utilisation has changed to 82% now. Our attrition has also come down significantly. That’s the reason you see a net headcount reduction."

"We have changed our hiring model significantly. We no more hire all the freshers from campus. We hire less than half of them from campus and more than half of them off campus," he added.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) which reported its Q4 earnings last week, had a similar pattern, It’s headcount too shrunk by 13,249 employees on a YoY basis in FY24, a first in 19 years since it got listed in 2004. Sequentially headcount was down by 1,759 as of the January-March quarter.

Als0 read: Infosys Q4 results: Net profit at Rs 7,969 crore, beats estimates; Rs 28 dividend declared