TCS plans salary hikes in April

Tata Consultancy Services Limited (TCS), the country's largest software exporter by revenues, will be finalising its wage and recruitment plans shortly, said the company's chief financial officer and executive director, S Mahalingam.

"Sometime back we had said we would be announcing our increments around April this year and that is what we would be doing," he said. However, he declined to divulge the quantum of the proposed salary hike for the next financial year. The last time TCS staff received a salary increment was in April 2008.

Mahalingam was speaking to mediapersons on the sidelines of the Information Technology and Services Industry Association of Andhra Pradesh (ITsAP)'s two-day software products showcase and awards, which concluded here today.

Mahalingam said compensation was a major factor to tackle attrition. “However, beyond that performance-related abilities also matter.” The company’s attrition rate is 11.5 per cent.

In the third quarter of the current fiscal, attrition rate at TCS declined to 11.5 per cent, as compared to 13.2 per cent in the sequential quarter. The gross addition of employees increased and stood at 12,854 in Q3 of FY10, as against 9,935 in Q2 FY10 and 2,828 in Q1 FY10.

"We will also be recruiting 30,000 people during the next financial year. At the moment, the market has talented people and therefore it should not be difficult to hire," he said.

Mahalingam said TCS was currently focusing on emerging markets like Brazil, particularly in verticals like banking, energy and financial sectors. "We have 2,000 people in Brazil and have been there for six years now. We see a lot of opportunity there," he said.