Tata Consultancy Services, India's largest IT company, tops the list of 'best employers' in the IT sector,.

Infosys Technologies remains the 'dream company' in the IT arena and multinational companies occupy the maximum mindshare of professionals, according to a survey by Dataquest-IDC.

TCS pips Cadence Design Systems, which was the best employer last year. Infosys has moved up one rank to the second slot and is followed by IBM India. TCS was ranked second last year.

Cadence has moved down to the fourth rank. The other losers compared to their rankings last year are Hewlett-Packard India, Rolta India and Wipro.

Wipro, which ranked 7^th last year, currently ranks 18.

In the 'dream company' ranking, IBM India is ranked second and Microsoft India is placed third.

In terms of the retention rate of employees, Hewlett-Packard India is the number one software company for 2004 followed by Philips Software and Infinite Computers.

In terms of low attrition rate also, Hewlett-Packard India remained on top, followed by Philips Software and Cadence. Sasken has the highest attrition rate at 22 per cent.

The average attrition rate is 13 per cent in the industry, while the retention rate is 85 per cent.

Among the top five employers in the large companies segment are TCS, Infosys, IBM India, Oracle India and Hewlett-Packard India.

In small companies' category, Cadence stood at the top followed by Philips Software, Sasken, Mindtree Consulting and Accel ICIM.

One of the key findings of the survey is that money is taking a backseat in the decision to join a company.

Salary and compensation dropped to fifth position in their importance for employees' satisfaction.