TCS to hire 50,000 this year and next

On expansion mode:Mr N. Chandrasekaran, CEO and MD, Tata Consultancy Services, at a press conference in Chennai on Monday.



Chennai, Nov. 15

Tata Consultancy Services, which plans to recruit around 50,000 employees this fiscal , will ‘probably' add a similar number the next fiscal, according to its CEO and Managing Director Mr N. Chandrasekaran.

“We plan to increase recruitment everywhere, as the market is good across industries with a lot more business opportunity and good recovery,” he told newspersons.

“If you ask me whether it [the recruitment number] will double or triple, I cannot say yes. But if you ask me whether we want to double or triple, I (would) say yes,” he said.

The company, India's largest software firm, at present has 1,77,000 employees globally, including 12,000 local nationals from countries such as Latin America, the UK, the US and China. Overall, around 50,000 employees are abroad while the remaining are in India, he said.

He added that the challenge was not only to have a large talent pool but also get the right delivery model and clients. “It is an integrated view. One is the company's preparedness and the other is the market readiness. It is a combination of factors.”

He referred to TCS' experience in China, where it recruited the first 1,000 people very quickly but the global crisis made the going slow. It could reach only 1,200 people in two years while in India recruitment growth has continued. In China, the company is trying to recruit more, he said.

Lateral vs campus placement

Asked if the company roped in more experienced people than college freshers in recent quarters, he said, “I do not think we consciously recruited less from colleges in the last two or three quarters.” Last year, TCS met its commitment of recruiting 24,000 freshers. For this fiscal, it first said it would recruit 30,000; increased it to 40,000 and now plans to hire around 50,000 because of the increasing demand, he said.

“When we had to increase from 30,000 to 50,000 there was no way we could have gone back to colleges since the recruitment cycle has already been completed. We have now the opportunity to go to colleges in the next cycle. That's what we have done,” he said. “I would like to see around 70 per cent of the hires from colleges,” he said asked on future plan to hire freshers.

Even though the company's attrition level was relatively lower at 14 per cent, Mr Chandrasekaran felt that it was quite high and that he would be comfortable with it at 9-11 per cent.

TCS hopes to add around 12,000 employees in Chennai to reach the 50,000-employee base in the city by next year. Chennai is the biggest centre for the company.

Research Fellow

Meanwhile, TCS today announced the first batch of research scholars for the TCS Research Fellowship programme by sponsoring PhD candidates. This is to promote ‘quality academic research in India. We are not looking at these candidates to join TCS but would like them to continue in academic field and with their research,” he said.

Twenty-two candidates have been chosen from across India and an additional 18 will be named by February. The company plans to fund 200 doctoral candidates over a period of five years to take up PhD programmes in reputed academic institutions across the country in computer science, he said.

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http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2010/11/16/stories/2010111653030900.htm