IT industry's 'people' conundrum may delay its revenue growth targets

The current talent crisis may delay the industry's efforts to move up the value chain by delinking headcount and revenue streams

A decade or so ago, the Indian IT services industry started talking about the need to increase non-linear revenue streams, which means delinking employee headcount and revenue growth. But the current war for talent and the struggle that the industry is going through to add people to meet demand suggests that the quest for non-linear revenue remains an elusive target.

In fact, all the top four IT players reported higher attrition in Q1FY23, which also impacted top and bottom lines. At TCS attrition was 19.7 per cent, Infosys 28.4 per cent and HCL Technologies 23.8 per cent. Only Wipro,