This was a big fall—from a position among the top five best IT employers at # 4 last year to #15. Some HR parameters, including attrition and retention rates, improved (HCL Tech ranked fifth on both). The company’s attrition rate at 9.1% was good compared to the industry average of 12.3%. Even its retention rate at 82.3% was just below the industry average of 88%. The setback came from low comparative overall satisfaction (ranked 14), peer satisfaction (13th) and average salary (13th).

The biggest hit was on preferred company and preferred employer scores. Only 1% of all IT employees voted for it as their dream   company, compared to 6.5% last year. The number of its own employees voting for it as preferred employer also came down drastically—from 65% last year to 19.4%—the lowest among the Top 20. Of the rest of its employees, 27.8% voted for Infosys, 16.7% for Cisco, 11.1% each for IBM and Microsoft, and 8.3% for Wipro. However, most employees said they were happy with the technology they were working on. Ashok Bhattacharya is the vice president, human resources.