Hexaware to cut 300 employees

By siliconindia   |   Thursday, 08 January 2009, 19:14 IST   |    7 Comments
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Mumbai: Indian IT and BPO firms continue to reduce their labor cost as they find it difficult to go ahead due to U.S. recession. Now Hexaware Technologies, one of the providers of IT and BPO services, takes its turn to reduce the work force. They are all set to reduce about 4.5 percent in its work force by the end of this year. Together with a high attrition rate (24 percent), the company's total employee strength may go down by 300 by the end of 2008, reported BusinessLine. Moreover, Hexaware is grappling with the delayed executions in existing contracts and lengthening decision-making cycles for new engagements due to U.S. recession. Previously, Hexaware has been hiring about 1000 persons annually and the financial uncertainty forces them to stop hiring for the next two quarters. Presently, employee strength of the company comes around 6,300 from about 6,598 at the end of June. P.R. Chandrasekar, Chief Executive Officer and Vice-Chairman, Hexaware Technologies, said "We do have a challenge on our HR front; a fair amount of this is related to attrition that we are not back filling. Moreover, there will always be non-performers weeded out at regular intervals." Chandrashekar said,"For the June quarter, Hexaware's utilization rate was around 64 percent. With a smaller employee base, the company would be able to improve this to 70 percent in the next 2-3 quarters." "We are trying to put a focused operational structure in place. Some of the measures that are being considered are vertical focus and key account wins," he added. In addition, "Hexaware has outlined a capital expenditure plan of Rs 116 crore for the current fiscal," said Prateek Aggarwal, Chief Financial Officer, Hexaware.