HYDERABAD: Though the issue over layoffs in IT companies does not seem to settle down anytime soon with increasing number of techies taking their pleas to the labour department, there are some who believe that this was a long time coming and should serve as an alarm bell for those on bench.
Naveen, an IT employee, who saw some of his colleagues get fired in the recent layoffs says, “I know several friends of mine who are on bench and while away time rather than upgrading their skills and try to get into a project. They just login to their accounts, spend time doing things like watching movies or playing games on phone and leave. Such employees will definitely be fired.”
When contacted, NASSCOM’s Regional Director, Srikanth Srinivas says that the layoffs should be a reminder to IT employees that they need to constantly upgrade their technical skills. He said, “The rate of change is rapid, so should be the rate of adoption. Automation was on cards since a long time and majority of the employees are aware about it. It is just that they were not prepared for the change.”
Techies should do their best in staying relevant in their companies. Executive sourcing human resources firm Head Hunters India said that there would be 1.75 lakh annual job cut in the Indian IT industry in the coming three years and that half of the present jobs will become irrelevant in coming 3-4 years. Painting a positive picture of the long term, Digital India, a Central government initiative shared statistical data provided by NASSCOM on its official Twitter handle stating that 25-30 lakh would be created by 2025 in the Indian IT industry. The data also noted an increase of employment in startup industry which has a combined workforce of 39 lakh, of which 1.7 lakh jobs were added this year.