TCS to add 20,000 in H2 FY11

Country's largest software firm Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) today said it expects to add 20,000 people in the second half of FY11, taking its total hiring during this fiscal to over 50,000 persons.

The company, at the beginning of this fiscal, had forecast hiring 30,000 people during 2010-11.

"We had targetted to hire 30,000 employees in the current fiscal. But during the first half only, we have employed 30,000 and are targetting to hire over 20,000 more employees in the next two quarters," TCS Global HR Head Ajoy Mukherjee told reporters here.

TCS added 19,293 people during the July-September quarter, the highest ever for the company, taking the total headcount to 1.74 lakh at the end of September 2010.

"We have had the highest quarterly gross and net addition of employees in the company's history on the back of strong growth performances," Mukherjee added.

The recovery in business environment has led IT majors like Infosys and TCS to hire aggressively again. This comes after more than a year of muted hiring during the global economic downturn as clients cut IT budgets to tide over the slowdown.

Software firms are also hiring aggressively to cope up with the high attrition rates as demand for experienced professionals returns.

The overall attrition rate in Q2 for TCS stood at 14.1 per cent.

Buoyed by the stellar results, industry analysts are confident that the hiring targets would be revised again.

"The company is expecting to hire 50,000 people this fiscal which it will be able to surpass very easily," Angel Broking IT-Analyst Srishti Anand said.