Delayed onboarding unfairly punishes employees for errors of the employer

livemint.com:

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), who, the union alleged, had been left “stranded and jobless" after the IT major failed to follow through its offer of employment with an actual job, according to a report in the Mint. "Delayed onboarding" refers to companies not transitioning their job offers into actual, salaried positions. This issue surfaced after the Covid-19 pandemic, which disrupted businesses globally.

Though there was an increase in IT spending due to the new remote-working norm, it led to a churn in the kind of skills and talent required. Post-pandemic, with slowed growth in the US and EU and reduced IT budgets, India's $220 billion IT industry has faced challenges. JP Morgan has forecast a “washout year" with “no discernible uptick" in new deal signings seen this year.

In fact, most IT majors, have warned that their global clients have been cutting IT spends, while delaying or cancelling ongoing contracts. This has had a knock-on impact on hiring. Not that overall hiring has dropped.

In fact, according to industry body NASSCOM, India’s IT sector continues to be a net employer, with a current employee strength of over 5.4 million, with 290,000 new jobs created in FY23. But there has been a significant drop in hiring at the fresher level, with staffing services firm Teamlease predicting a 30% drop for the current fiscal ending March 2024. While thousands of offer letters have been issued, there has been considerable delay in these firms converting their offers to actual jobs.