Zensar looking to hire 600 next fiscal

RPG group company Zensar Technologies Ltd plans to hire up to 600 employees in the next financial year, as it expects a strong rebound in demand for software services. “We are in the process of finalising our hiring plans for next year… I expect 2014 to be a phenomenal year for the Indian IT industry, given the signs of economic growth in all major markets and the strength in our business model,” said Ganesh Natarajan, Vice-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Zensar. Natarajan told Business Line that about 60 per cent of the hiring would be from campuses (both engineering and other streams), while the rest would be lateral recruits. The company is also keen to hire up to 75 staffers in its overseas locations, mainly from campuses in the US. In addition to India, the IT services firm has a presence in the US, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, South Africa, Singapore, China and Australia. Global force Natarajan wants to induct interns from different parts of the world – including the US and parts of Europe – in a bid to create a global workforce. “We now have a Nigerian intern from the US as part of a global internship programme that we have started. Our intent is to build a pool of youngsters who are keen to explore opportunities in India’s IT industry,” he added. The company has both undergraduates as well as MBAs from the US and Europe on its radar.
Zensar says most of 2013 was spent in re-aligning priorities and getting the business mix right. Incidentally, the company had 168 fewer employees by end-September 2013, at 6,657 staffers against 6,825 in the corresponding quarter a year ago. Natarajan added the company had put in place a platform that could lead to faster growth over the next few years. Transformation year “I would not say we did very well in 2013, but it was a transformational year for Zensar. We were able to alter the business model and design a three-pronged strategy of focusing on the traditional businesses of application development and management and infrastructure management, while adding to the entire social, mobile and data analytics stack,” he said. Aided by the depreciating rupee, Zensar reported a 120 per cent rise in net profit in the September quarter to Rs 70.63 crore, while revenue rose 10 per cent to Rs 590 crore.