TCS hires 9,000 in Q3, full-year target at 35,000
The Economic Times — October 17, 2007

India’s largest software company, Tata Consultancy Services, plans to make a gross addition of nearly 9,000 people in the third quarter of the current financial year. In the second quarter ended September, the company had hired 12,523 people, helped by campus recruitment. “The company’s plan to hire 35,000 employees for the full year to March 2008 is on track,” executive director S Padmanabhan said on Tuesday.

The company is also planning to open training centres in smaller cities such as Chandigarh, Bhubaneswar and Gandhinagar with a capacity to train 5,000-10,000 people at a time. “We are looking to tap into the science graduates talent pool and train them to be engaged in TCS’s engagements though a training programme called Ignite,” Mr Padmanabhan said.

Through this programme, the company has already trained 500 such graduates in Chennai deployed within TCS. Further, it is looking to train more than 2,000 people by the end of next year in the southern city. The company expects to invest Rs 8-10 lakh per seat for its new centres. It expects to start at least one centre within the next year, according to CEO and MD S Ramadorai. The company now spends 2% of revenues on training.

TCS, which got more than half its revenue from the US in the September quarter, is also looking to hire more people in Latin America and North Africa to service clients in regions including Europe and the Middle East, Mr Padmanabhan said. It has put in place a hiring plan for 800 people in the US for 2007-08. It is also investing in improving the dual language skills for its employees by initiating training in regions like Morocco, Uruguay and Chile. TCS had about 5,500 employees in Latin America and was setting up a training centre in Morocco, where about 200 employees serviced French-speaking markets, he said. About 8.5% of its employees are foreign nationals, which the company hopes would improve in the coming quarters.

Mr Padmanabhan also said that wages for IT services employees rose by about 12-15% this fiscal year. However, he expressed the hope that wages would stabilise in the next fiscal.

TCS posted a 4.1% sequential growth in net profit to Rs 1,252 crore. Analysts noted that the employee numbers for the company looked good. “The strong employee guidance and deal flows would help the company through to FY09,” said Amitabh Chakraborty, president of equity at Religare.