Deloitte to add 3300 in India

Sunitha Natti

HYDERABAD: New York based consulting major, Deloitte & Touche is planning to up its Indian headcount to 5,000 in the next 18 months from the present 1,700. The company is also planning to increase the ratio of women employees at all levels - be it entry level or top management level from the present 40 percent to 50 percent thereby giving an equal opportunity to share the dais with men.

The company has its back office operations running from Hyderabad and Mumbai in India. "While the industry's BPO operations attrition rate is around 40 percent, we at Deloitte have attrition rates of around 20 percent. While in technological services the rate is around 22 - 25 percent," said Deloitte Managing Principal, Tracey Edwards.

With over 1,20,000 people in nearly 150 countries, the member firms of Deloitte deliver audit, tax and consulting and financial advisory services worldwide, thereby serving more than one-half of the world's largest companies. The company posted revenues of $ 15.1 billion for the fiscal year 2003.

Deloitte's initiative for the Retention and Advancement of Women (Women's initiative) was launched in 1993 to reverse what was then a high female turnover rate in US, and to ensure that women had the same opportunities as men to develop and advance. The company now has the highest percentage of women partners, principals and directors among the Big Four accounting firms-17.2 percent according to Public Accounting Report with a commitment to increase that percentage.

"We now want to practice the same here in India too. There is good scope for sourcing out the right talent and believing this, I am proposing to increase the ratio of women employees from the present 40 percent to a 50:50 ratio," explained Edwards.