Tech Mahindra likely to hire 4,000 freshers in next three quarters

Tech Mahindra indicated at hiring around 4,000 freshers over the next three quarters as the IT services major focuses more on "demand-based" hiring instead of creating an inventory.

The company has already hired about 1,800 fresh graduates in the first quarter of the ongoing fiscal, Tech Mahindra Chief Financial Officer Manoj Bhat said in a recent investor call.

"I think over the next three quarters, I do not have a ready number, but our estimate would be about 4,000 people roughly, but it could vary a bit so do not take that as a number, but it is just an indicative view," he said.

The Mumbai-based company had a total headcount of 113,552 people at the end of June 2018 quarter, an addition of 745 people over the preceding quarter.

The software headcount was 72,462 people, while those in BPO were 34,700 and 6,390 people in sales and support function in the said quarter.

Tech Mahindra CEO and MD C P Gurnani said trends suggest that hiring is no longer linear to the growth of companies.

Also, fresher hiring is distributed ie a centre in Plano, Munich or the UK is just as important for hiring as the Indian market is. "...the focus is more on demand-based hiring instead of creating an inventory," he explained.

Talking about high attrition rates at the firm, Bhat said the company is concerned about attrition of key talent, but is it something that wouldn't impact its ability to execute.

"As of now it is still probably under control and we will continue to monitor it closely," he added.

Tech Mahindra reported attrition at 19 per cent (last 12 month basis), while utilisation levels were at 81 per cent (including trainees).

Tech Mahindra COO L Ravichandran said the company is looking at different kinds of training and very specific online-based training, so that the trainees can become billable very quick. "...so you are not going to see huge number of headcount increase and we continuously hire some specific skills both in India and overseas... I do not want it (hiring) to become linear and we want to push ourselves to deliver more with less number of people," he added.