Slow tech spends hit IT staff’s wallets

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

India's third-largest IT firm HCLTech told ET that senior employees will not get annual increments for this fiscal year while hikes will be deferred by a quarter for other staff.Also read | HCL Tech Q1 Results: Profit rises 8% YoY to Rs 3,534 crore, misses estimatesWipro has also delayed annual hikes by a quarter. The company has been facing margin pressure and widespread underperformance, especially of its banking financial services and technology vertical.Also read | TCS Q1 Results: Profit rises 17% YoY to Rs 11,074 crore, beats estimates; revenue up 13% India’s largest software exporter Tata Consultancy Services was the only company to have rolled out annual hikes in the first quarter itself, leading to a large margin setback of 200 basis points from increments.Hiring in negative territory The Tata Group firm however has been delaying the onboarding of lateral hires, typically in the 3-10 years’ experience range.

This is across multiple locations including Bengaluru, Pune and Mumbai. Project delays and rampdowns have been cited as the reason.TCS is committed to honouring all offers made, said its executives on Wednesday, even as the $28 billion company will go slow on hiring.

Senior management won’t get hikes this year, said HCLTech MD and chief executive C Vijayakumar. “And for junior and mid-management employees, it will be delayed definitely by a quarter,” said the US-based executive at the $12.6 billion firm.

“While we do this, we will continue to closely monitor the industry trends and, as appropriate, take measures as required.” Economic uncertainty has impacted the IT industry’s performance in the recently concluded quarter. On earnings calls, management cited discretionary spending cuts as clients are spooked