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Pune-based Persistent Systems has said that it will hire up to 3,000 freshers over the next year as surge in demand during the September quarter lead to better earnings. While the company said it prefers to hire experienced professionals, the share of freshers in the hiring pie is set to increase due to the current circumstances.
Persistent Systems has reported a 58.6 per cent increase in net profit for September quarter this fiscal at ₹161.75 crore, as compared to ₹101.98 crore. The Pune-based company posted a 34 per cent jump in the revenue for the period at ₹1,351.25 crore, against ₹1,007.74 crore.
Its operating profit margin came at 16.1 per cent, which executives explained was within the target band that Persistent aspires.
Persistent Systems CEO Sandeep Kalra said demand has been moving very strong across verticals, ensuring a broad-based growth during the quarter.
Chief Financial Officer Sunil Sapre said this level of growth could not have been foreseen a year ago and right now, the company will be doing all for maintaining the momentum and not focusing exclusively on the margins front.
Deals are getting signed quicker as clients become more serious about driving the changes in their respective businesses, and the company is also bidding for higher deal values of up to $100 million, Sapre said, adding that earlier it used to do deals in the $50-million bracket.
Persistant's overall order book stood at $282.5 million as per total contract value for the quarter ended September.
Meanwhile, Persistent saw its attrition rate increase to 23.6 per cent for the reporting quarter, up from 16.6 per cent in the preceding quarter and only 10.6 per cent in the year-ago period. The churn came as demand for human resources went up with all the peers also experiencing high growth.
Kalra admitted that supply-side challenges are the biggest headwinds going forward and expected the issues to last up to a year before the industry stabilises.
In face of the rising attrition, the company has taken measures, including the hiring of new talent, introducing a stock options programme, covering 80 per cent of the over 15,800 employees and helping them improve work-life balance, Sapre said.
Kalra said it will hire between 2,500-3,000 freshers over the next year to help on the talent side.
Sapre noted that the company typically hires experienced professionals as compared, but the current circumstances will lead to an increase in fresher hiring. Of the total present workforce, 47 per cent have joined the company in the last one year, Sapre noted.
On Wednesday, Persistent Systems shares ended trade at ₹4,036.65, up 102.35 points or 2.60 per cent on BSE.
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