Top 5 Indian IT firms lose 25,000 female employees in FY2024 after post-pandemic hiring spree

The number of women in India’s top 5 IT firms fell in 2023-24 after post-pandemic hiring spree.

India’s top five IT companies including Infosys, TCS, Wipro, LTI Mindtree, and HCL Tech, lost 25,000 female employees during the financial year 2023-24, data from staffing firm Xpheno showed, as reported by the Economic Times.

Indian IT suffers from falling gender diversity this year (Unsplash)

The total number of women employed in these firms fell to 5,15,000 from 5,40,000 during the period.

This is after the number of women employees increased by about 166,000, or by 44% from 2020 to 2023. Pre-pandemic count of women employees (March 2020) was 374,000.

Diversity ratio growth also slumped to negligible levels post the Covid-19 pandemic as between 2020 and 2024, the diversity ratio grew by a minor 0.9 percentage points during this period, indicating a comparable jump in hiring of male employees as well.

The percentage of women in leadership roles in the Indian IT industry is at 17%; less than half of the entry level roles, which stand at 35%, according to data shared by Avtar group, a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) solutions company.

Attrition of women in the tech sector is also higher at 26% compared with the overall attrition of women across industry sectors at 21%, according to Avtar’s data.

“The pressure to excel in a demanding field while also managing personal commitments leads to burnout, which results in high attrition,” Saundarya Rajesh, founder-president of Avtar group told the Economic Times. “Clearly, the lack of advancement opportunities is discouraging for new hires from diverse backgrounds,” she added.

Tackling the gender gap in leadership positions can be achieved by policies that support women during pivotal life stages, such as flexible work arrangements, mentorship programs, and promoting return-to-work initiatives for those re-entering the workforce after a career hiatus, Krishna Vij, business head at Teamlease Digital told the Economic Times.

Avtar’s data shows that post-pandemic, the diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) intent has grown from 73% to 77%.