The mandate fulfilment or conversion rate in India s IT services sector has dropped to an all-time rate, marking a significant decline from pre-pandemic levels in FY20. While demand is rebounding, particularly for specialized fields like Artificial Intelligence and cybersecurity, the hiring process has become more rigorous, leading to prolonged recruitment timelines. IT services hiring likely to stay muted till September.
The number of open positions in the IT services sector stood at 50,000 at the end of January, down 21% from a year ago and over 60% from two years ago, according to data from LinkedIn and other top job boards put together by specialist staffing firm Xpheno.
This is giving the GCCs a clear edge in wooing top leadership talent vis-à-vis the others in the tech cohort. At GCCs, professionals with 18-25 years of experience get Rs 1.6-2.0 crore for the CTO role, Rs 1.5-2.0 crore for the CFO and Rs 1.5-1.8 crore for the chief HR officer. Packages vary based on the pedigree of talent, size and stage of the company and the criticality of the role.
Data shared by Deloitte shows that 75% of the 250 companies surveyed are considering gig workforce for their open positions in 2024, as against 61% last year. Data from freelance platform Flexing It shows a similar trend, with more than 30% year-on-year increase in the number of projects in the tech sector.