News: Cognizant looking to ramp up employee count by hiring 23,000 students in 2020

Recruitment

Cognizant looking to ramp up employee count by hiring 23,000 students in 2020

India CMD Ramkumar Ramamoorthy’s announcement comes days after Cognizant announced about 7,000 job cuts in next few quarters as part of its restructuring.
Cognizant looking to ramp up employee count by hiring 23,000 students in 2020

Days after Cognizant announced it will cut about 7,000 jobs in next few quarters as part of the restructuring the company, Ramkumar Ramamoorthy, Chairman and Managing Director of Cognizant India has stated that it is planning to hire around 23,000 students from technology institutions in India during the calendar year 2020, in addition to its campus hiring for business-process outsourcing (BPO) operations.

Ramamoorthy’s latest statement comes days after Cognizant said it was planning to remove around 7,000 mid- and senior-level jobs and shut down its content moderation business, which accounts for another 6,000 jobs, as part of its ‘2020 Fit for Growth Plan’. 

Speaking at the 18th edition of CII Connect 2019, he clarified that the company would continue hiring and that the earlier job-cut announcement was but a small portion of the larger plan, given that Cognizant has around 290,000 employees globally.

Ramamoorthy stated, "Our plan is to hire a little over 23,000 students across the country from STEM disciplines of study, primarily engineering, in the calendar year 2020. This does not include several thousands of people we will hire for our BPO business from campuses.”

The company has made over 15,000 offers at over 80 engineering campuses so far. Compared to last year, Cognizant's campus talent hire this year would go up by 30 percent. Meanwhile, the IT company has also increased entry-level compensation from about Rs 3.38 lakh to about Rs 4 lakh.

While the company remains in news due to recent job cuts, the rising attrition levels, and the voluntary separation program it initiated for its top executives earlier this year, however overall, the firm’s focus will be on hiring in large numbers, both from campuses and from the market. In the last five years from 2014 to 2018, Cognizant has registered a net headcount addition of 66,000 in India. Meanwhile, the increase in IT hiring is validated by recent surveys. According to the Experis IT Employment Outlook Survey released by Experis IT – ManpowerGroup India, IT professionals can look forward to fresh job opportunities through the upcoming months, October’19 – March’20. 

Read full story

Topics: Recruitment, #Hiring

Did you find this story helpful?

Author

QUICK POLL

How do you envision AI transforming your work?