TCS to hire 35,000; rejig may also see senior-level layoffs

Tata Consultancy Services, India’s largest software exporter, will hire 35,000 people next year as it looks to restructure its existing staff strength, a move that may also include laying off under performers from among its senior executives.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India’s largest software exporter, will hire 35,000 people next year as it looks to restructure its existing staff strength, a move that may also include laying off under performers from among its senior executives.

The company, however, said staff reduction was a part of its annual voluntary attrition. “It is not new,” Ajoyendra Mukherjee, executive vice-president and global head (human resources), told reporters on Friday. “Involuntary attrition is often a result of business needs vis-a-vis people’s aspirations. When an organisation wants to focus on certain areas, individuals’ aspirations sometimes may not match that. In that case we talk to those people. It is a process that we do through-out the year.”

Recruitments from campuses have already started and over 31,000 have been given offer letters, the company said.

Such a restructuring exercise accounts for only about 1% of the company’s employee attrition of 12.8% during the July-September quarter, the lowest among major IT companies, it added.

Attrition typically covers those executives who are asked to leave after background checks turn negative. The company, with a gross employee addition of over 20,000 people annually, also asks people hired for specific task to go when the project gets over.

The restructuring exercise, which focuses on middle and senior-level executives, will be completed by February, the company said.

The move is seen as surprising for the company that is one of the leading recruiters in India and overseas. The company has a total headcount of 313,757 people across geographies.

Software companies, which have been the top recruiters in the last 10 years. They are now looking to trim employee strength to cut costs as demand slows in developed markets.

TCS’ competitor Wipro had recently said it would pare its 152,000-strong workforce.

Tata Steel, another Tata group company, had in July announced plans to cut 400 jobs at its plant in Port Talbot in Wales.