TCS commits on strong campus hiring, as HCL, Infy & CTS lag

The No. 1 IT exporter will hire 45,000 freshers this year, while peers remain non-committal

News | by CIOL Correspondent

BANGALORE, INDIA: Belying the prevailing grim outlook on IT campus recruitment scenario in the country, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has said that it will hire 45,000 candidates (overall) this year.
At its fourth quarter results announcement on Wednesday, the numero uno IT exporter from the country revealed its plans to bring aboard 20,000 more freshers, apart from the 25,000 campus offers it had already made this year.
It's pertinent to note that TCS has one of the lowest attrition rates among Indian IT services companies, and it currently is 9.40 per cent, which is way below that of its other competitors.
"Last quarter, we have given offers to 25,000 trainees and they will start joining from Q2 (July-Sept) onwards. We will be adding about 45,000 (people) this year," said Ajoy Mukherjee, head of global human resources at TCS.
But the scene is not that rosy with its industry peers. In all likelihood, Cognizant Technology Solutions (CTS) is expected to 'cousel out' - said to be a mutual process - around 500 employees, who reportedly underperformed.
When CIOL checked, we got a terse reply from a company spokesperson, "Each year, after our annual performance management cycle, relative underperformers leave the company or are counseled out in the interest of both the individual and the company. This is a common practice among all companies that focus on meritocracy and high performance."
"As an industry-leading growth player, we continue to hire in the marketplace based on business demand. We do expect thousands of people to join us over the coming months to meet our ever growing business needs."
Yet, we are awaiting an official response from CTS on the exact numbers of employees who face exit and on what grounds.
The news from Infosys Limited, which announced its fourth quarter results last Friday, is also not that heartening. "We will go to campuses for hiring as and when required. Though freshers account for about 70 per cent of our hiring, we will look for lateral hiring for the remaining 30 per cent internally through promotions as well as from the industry in new areas such as infrastructure, cloud, mobility and consultancy," chief executive officer, S.D. Shibulal, had said.
He informed that about 10,000 engineers would join the company this fiscal, including 5,000 who were given offer letters last fiscal - a marked deviation from Infy's practice to hire in big numbers.
"We will also consider doing just-in-time hiring during the year depending on the number of projects and their size," added Shibulal.