HCL Tech to hike workforce in Lucknow by 50% to 6,000 by March 2021

Firm currently serves 103 global clients from Lucknow centre, of which nearly 70% are US-based

IT major HCL Technologies is looking to increase the workforce at its Lucknow facility by 50 per cent by the end of next financial year 2020-21.

From the current headcount of 4,000, the company plans to add 2,000 employees to cater its business expansion roadmap, HCL Technologies corporate vice president Sanjay Gupta told Business Standard here.

“In fact, our employee count is expected to hit 4,500 by the end of March 2020 from the current strength of 4,000 professionals,” he said, adding the Lucknow facility continued to grow fast and gain traction in the market. The employee count of HCL Lucknow stood at nearly 3,300 in March 2019.

“We are currently serving 103 global clients from the Lucknow centre, of which nearly 70 per cent are based in the US. More projects are in the pipeline,” he added.

HCL Lucknow is the largest HCL campus in North India and spread over 100 acres of land. It offers spectrum of services including infrastructure management, application development, product engineering, BPO and HCL internal enabling functions.

HCL Lucknow started its operations in Oct 2016 and it is part of HCL’s strategic vision to expand and create opportunities in smaller cities across India.

“The company has so far made investments to the tune of Rs 500 crore in HCL Lucknow and more funds would be invested as and when required,” Gupta said adding nearly 95 per cent of the employees hailed from Uttar Pradesh.

Besides, the company is also aiming at achieving gender diversity with almost 23 per cent of the current employees being women professionals.

He recalled that when the HCL Lucknow facility was being developed, skeptics were rather apprehensive if the venture could succeed in a non-metro city like Lucknow, yet the state’s human capital had contributed to its continues progress.

HCL Lucknow comprises Arya Bhatt Training Centre to train and cross train 500 individuals simultaneously. A second training centre with an additional capacity of training 500 people is also complete and expected to start functioning soon.

The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh is also keenly promoting the IT and new age sectors in the state, especially in the Eastern and Central regions for balanced growth beyond the National Capital Region (NCR) hubs of Noida and Greater Noida.

Meanwhile, the company has sponsored the 5th Edition of ‘HCL Lucknow City Half Marathon’, which was held today, and tied up with Tabono Sports Private Limited for the purpose.

“At HCL Technologies, we believe that the physical and mental wellbeing of our employees is as important as professional growth. The event is growing in popularity with every passing year. From 700 participants in 2016, the 2020 edition of the HCL Lucknow Half Marathon is expected to have participation from nearly 6,000 runners,” Gupta said.