HEXAWARE, MASTEK BRING BENCHERS BACK TO WORK

Shilpa Shree, Mumbai
Financial Chronicle

Hexaware Technologies and Mastek, two leading mid-sized IT firms from Mumbai, have reduced the size of their virtual bench – a term used to describe IT professionals not working on projects and having been handed pay cuts.

“Both Hexaware and Mastek have begun placing some of their benched staff on projects,” said industry officials. IT analysts told Financial Chronicle that this only shows early signs of a revival in the domestic IT industry.

Both had announced creation of a virtual bench in their respective companies in March 2009. Hexaware had announced to place around 350 people on virtual bench, as they were “non-billable” and had their salaries reduced 2-10 per cent. Mastek had put around 425 people on virtual bench.

At present, the number of people on the virtual bench has gone below 150 in Hexaware, while Mastek has seen a reduction of 15-20 per cent.

“What is happening is that the companies are seeing some business trickling in from their clients,” said Sudin Apte, an analyst with research firm Forrester. He, however, said that no major deal had been announced in the recent past.

“With new business opportunities and enhancement on projects, we have recalled many employees from the virtual bench,” said Deependra Chumble, chief people officer of Hexaware.

Hexaware typically calls back employees when it knows about the orders in the pipeline. “We put them on a refresher course after which they start working on a particular project,” added Chumble.

Mastek’s head of human resource, Kalpana Jaishankar said, “We have reduced the bench size by 15-20 per cent. Around 10-15 per cent of the employees put on bench have quit.” Jaishankar added that the project pipeline looks optimistic. In certain cases, Mastek has seen extension of existing projects.

Hexaware has also seen some people quit from its bench. “There were a few benched employees who found alternate jobs. We took the decision of either letting them go or retaining them based on the forecast we have taken,” said Chumble.