TCS to hire 50% more students for 2011-12

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the country’s largest information technology services company, will hire 50 per cent more students from campuses for 2011-12. For this financial year, TCS had offered jobs to 20,000 students across campuses. TCS will start visiting campuses from November.

Ajoy Mukherjee, vice-president and head, global human resources of TCS, said at the beginning of this financial year, they had predicted a hiring of 30,000 people and it was based on the visibility available during that quarter. “In the last one quarter, growth has come much faster, for which we need to manage the capacity as well.”

TCS yesterday announced its second-quarter numbers and reported the highest-ever employee addition in a quarter, with 19,293 gross hires. The net hiring was 10,229.

The company, which reported an attrition rate of 14.1 per cent for the September quarter, is also focusing on employee retention measures. “Though we have one of the lowest attrition numbers in the industry, they are not acceptable and we will work towards bringing this down,” said Mukherjee.

At junior level, TCS will give promotion on a quarterly basis, rather than twice a year, from this quarter. “Under the employee engagement measures, there are two parts — compensation and job rotation. Other than increments, which happen in April, and promotions in July, we have aligned the promotions in a quarterly fashion at the junior level. This has gone down very well.”

He, however, maintained that TCS would not look at any additional increment during this year. “We are also engaging with employees through several initiatives like Maitree, Employee Connect and other programmes,” he said.

TCS is witnessing a change in the mix of trainees and laterals. For this financial year, the company eyes a lateral hiring of 50-55 per cent of the overall hires.

“We had aimed at a trainee to lateral ratio of 65:35. But as things are going and demands are growing, trainee option is limited. So, during this quarter, we did direct hiring. And if the demand continuous to grow like this, lateral hiring will be more. The 65:35 seems to be a bit aggressive target.”

TCS at a 52-week high
Meanwhile, TCS today touched a 52-week high on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on better-than-expected second-quarter numbers.

TCS shares zoomed 6.7 per cent to a 52-week high of Rs 1,049.9 during intra-day trading on BSE and closed 5.72 per cent higher at Rs 1,040.

TCS yesterday beat market expectations, with a 32.1 per cent jump in its second-quarter consolidated net profit at Rs 2,169 crore.