At Wipro, future pay hikes to depend on ‘upskilling & reskilling’ by employees, says HR chief

Future salary hikes in Wipro will be based on individuals ‘upskilling and reskilling’ themselves, the IT major’s human resources chief has said, laying special emphasis on ‘niche skills’ such as generative AI and cybersecurity.

New employees, too, will not be hired with a straight 30% pay rise, declared Saurabh Govil in an interview with Times of India.

“In 2021, people had a lot of opportunities, our attrition was high, and employees were being hired at 30% premiums. That will not happen now. But now, niche skills like generative AI and cybersecurity will get a premium,” Govil, Wipro’s Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) for more than 30 years, told the English daily.

Continuing, Govil said, “As generative AI picks up steam, a lot of the work at the bottom of the pyramid, like doing analysis, will be done by the machine, forcing people to do more complex work.”

Wipro and artificial intelligence

On this front, he remarked, the company’s aim is to get 80% of the queries directed to the HR department, resolved through bots. HR professionals, on the other hand, will coach managers and leaders on how to build teams and be better at managing them, Govil noted.

Wipro’s lower-salary proposal to new joinees

These remarks by Wipro’s human resources chief come at a time when 92% freshers, from amongst those awaiting their onboarding, have accepted the Bengaluru-based firm’s proposal to join at a starting salary ( ₹3.5 lakh a year) lower than what was originally offered ( ₹6.5 lakh a year).

Recently, company chairman Rishad Premji, too, voluntarily slashed his remuneration by nearly 50% for the financial year ending March 2023.