Professional services firms go slow on hiring

Bengaluru: Professional services and consultancy firms that had planned to recruit many thousands in India are likely to hit the slow lane, with the global economy slowing down in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
Ernst & Young had planned to hire 23,000 in the 2020 financial year. EY has a July to June financial year. Sources told TOI that the firm has already hired about 18,000 people, but the rest would now depend on their assessment of the impact of the virus outbreak.
When TOI contacted EY, its spokesperson said, “We have significantly reduced our immediate hiring. We will re-evaluate our long-term hiring on the basis of several external factors emerging in the business environment.”
EY, which employs over 50,000 people in India, the largest workforce outside the US, has eight GDS centres in the country with 27,000 people. The GDS centres focus on areas including finance, business development, technology, talent, procurement and risk management.
Deloitte had early last year spoken about its plan to hire 40,000 for its Hyderabad office over the next 3-5 years. That would have meant doubling its headcount in that facility to 80,000. The company started its recruitment drive last year, but sources now tell TOI that the firm is yet to take a call on the way forward. An email sent to Deloitte did not elicit a response till the time of going to press.
Professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) India was among the earliest to call out the challenges that would come from Covid-19. Shyamal Mukherjee, India chairman of PwC, wrote on his LinkedIn post, “We have worked out some interim measures which include deferment of promotions, increments and bonus till a point in time one gets certainty around business.”
KPMG India said it is monitoring the situation closely before it takes any employee-related actions. KPMG India spokesperson said they will evaluate and decide on the best possible options around the timing of increments, promotions and bonuses and they are keen that its employees do not suffer job losses on account of the current emergency.
Management consulting firm McKinsey is honouring the campus offers it has made already. Aditya Sharma, partner and lead for campus recruitments in McKinsey, said the company is looking forward to welcoming its new class of recruits. It did not say anything on future hiring plans.