TCS to add 78,000 candidates this fiscal; announces Smart Hiring Programme

With attrition increasing to 11.9 per cent amid the rising demand for technology professionals, TCS is now planning to hire more than 35,000 candidates in the second half of the ongoing financial year.

This means that the company will hire a total of 78,000 fresh graduates by the end of the FY22 if it meets its targets.

TCS has started registering candidates under its Smart Hiring programme exclusively for BCA, BSc (Math, Statistics, Physics, Chemistry, Electronics, Biochemistry, Computer Science, IT), BVoc in CS/IT from the year of passing 2020, 2021 and 2022. 

Students who perform exceptionally during the TCS Smart Hiring selection process will get an opportunity to join TCS Ignite – TCS’ unique ‘Science to Software’ programme. This programme trains candidates on trending technologies and will open the doorway to a holistic and global IT career.

TCS is also planning to hire more than 40,000 candidates direct from campuses in the upcoming months, as the demand for IT services in the post-Covid era rises manifold.

TCS, which is India’s largest IT services company, announced its bumper hiring plans, alongside posting record profits for the second quarter of the ongoing financial year.

However, the company is currently faced with a talent war against other IT companies and Indian tech startups.

TCS said that the company’s attrition rate in Q2 of FY22 has jumped to 11.2 per cent. TCS’ chief HR officer Milind Lakkad pointed out that high attrition levels are expected to continue in the next two to three quarters. He also said that the high attrition rates are a ‘concern’.

“We may have to increase the volume or velocity of our hiring a bit more than what we usually do because of increased attrition,” Lakkad added.

In the first half of FY22, the company hired 43,000 fresh graduates, more than the target announced by the company in July 2021.

The company's total employee count stood at 528,748 for the September quarter. Milind Lakkad, Chief Human Resources Officer, said in the earnings call that the high attrition is concerning and is expected to stay over the next 2-3 quarters, given the demand environment.

However the company is confident about addressing the supply side challenges given the fresher supply, he said.

The company crossed 5 lakh employees last quarter and became one of the largest private-sector employers in India. In a recent interview, N Ganapathy Subramaniam, COO, TCS, said that the company can have 1 million employees given its scale organisational structure.

TCS reported Rs46,867 crore in revenues for fiscal second quarter, up 16.8 per cent year-on-year (YoY) and Rs9,624 crore in net profits, a 14.1 per cent YoY growth.

The company signed deals worth $7.6 billion in the second quarter of the year, down from $8.6 billion for the same quarter last year. For the six months ended September 2021, the total contract value of deals signed stands at Rs1,570 crore, led by increased deal momentum in North America, banking and financial services, retail, and manufacturing.

Rajesh Gopinathan, CEO and MD, said, in a statement, “The strong and sustained demand environment is a once-in-a-decade opportunity to position ourselves as the preferred growth and transformation partner for our customers. We are using the growth tailwind to invest in strengthening relevant capabilities and building out a comprehensive portfolio of offerings that caters to a broader set of stakeholders in the enterprise across business cycles, strengthening our brand, and making our business more resilient. We believe this is the most sustainable pathway to create longer-term value for all our stakeholders.”

The pandemic has boosted demand for digital services as enterprises shifted to the cloud and moved online to ensure business continuity. This has resulted in huge demand for such services as companies’ world over are in different stages of their digital transformation journey.