Infosys, Wipro rely on innovation to woo talent

BANGALORE: The tech majors Infosys and Wipro are hunting for talent with a difference. They are playing up innovation to float newer ways of attracting and catching talent. Infosys Technologies has opened a ‘‘green channel'' inviting its ex-employees who wish to come back to the Infy stable. This special green channel has been created to make their return home a smooth affair.

The company is trying to drive the idea of ‘‘Once an Infoscion, always an Infoscion.'' The target cities are Bangalore, Chennai and Pune, as the company believes that a sizeable population of ex-Infoscions is residing in these cities.

Mohandas Pai, head (HR), Infosys Technologies, said: ‘‘A lot of people quit us in the last three months as markets started opening up. Many thought world was greener outside. Also, there has been directed poaching. We have gone in for another round of compensation hike. Now feed back is that many who quit us are wanting to come back. So, we have decided to make it a systemic issue and opened a green channel.''

Wipro too is going great guns with its Wipro Academy of Software Excellence (WASE) programme offering a world of exciting opportunities for freshers. Under the scheme, freshers are paid a stipend / salary of Rs 9,000 in the first year, Rs 11,500 in the second year, Rs 16,667 in the third year and Rs 21,500 in the fourth year. Well, the icing on the cake is an MS Degree from BITS Pilani at the end of fourth year. So for fresh grads it is like having the cake and eating it too. They will be Wipro employees and simultaneously will be doing their master's through a combination of online and offline.

‘‘We are hiring 3,000 fresh candidates under this programme this year. This is the first time we are hiring thousands under WASE and in earlier years, it has always been in hundreds,” said Pradeep Bahirwani, global head, talent acquisition, Wipro Technologies.

WASE is a 10-year-old programme, but Wipro hired only 4,000 people so far under this. Fresh grads in the areas of BSc computer science, information technology, electronics, physics, math, statistics are the target audience of WASE.