TCS to hire 35,000 this fiscal
The Hindu Business Line — April 22, 2008

Despite reporting a muted growth during the last quarter of the just ended fiscal due to delays in ramp-ups of some of its overseas clients, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has not whittled down its planned investments in its human resources pool. It has lined up a sizeable hiring programe for the current fiscal.

TCS, expecting the ramp-ups of a few of its major clients , has plans to hire between 30,000 and 35,000 people in 2008-09. It also plans to undertake salary hikes ranging between 8 and 10 per cent during the year, with the quantum of hike proposed being relatively smaller for its overseas employees at two to four per cent.

Mr Ajoy Mukherjee, Vice-President and Head Global Human Resources of TCS, said the company’s total employee strength at the end of last fiscal stood at 1.11 lakh professionals, with the gross addition during the year being 35,672. “Despite the muted growth in the last quarter of the year, our gross addition during the quarter was 6,291 and net addition 3,229. We have not cut back on our investments in customers, infrastructure and technology to drive future growth,” he said.

In the current year, TCS’s hiring target is between 30,000 to 35,000 professionals, having made 22,450 campus offers, including 4,089 offers to science graduates. TCS has taken up a science-to-software programme that envisages hiring of fresh science graduates and making them software professionals through extensive in-house training. “Another significant feature is that 28 per cent of our workforce is women,” according to Mr. Mukherjee.

On attrition, he said TCS continued to maintain the lowest attrition rate in the industry at 12.6 per cent. This included both high performers and under-performers. About 50 per cent of TCS’ associates have more than three years of work experience in the company.