Infosys, TCS, Wipro: Hiring, employee headcount fall across major Indian IT companies in Q1 FY24

Indian IT services companies, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS), Infosys Ltd, Wipro Ltd, and HCLTech, declared their Q1 FY 2023-24 results this month. The companies have witnessed a drastic reduction in headcount addition as compared to the year-ago quarter.

TCS

TCS added 523 employees in the quarter ended June 2023. The same company had added 14,136 employees in the year-ago quarter. The net employee addition in Q1 FY 23 was 28 times that of net employee addition in Q1 FY 24. 

After the earnings announcement, TCS Chief Human Resource Officer, Milind Lakkad said that the company plans on leveraging its existing employee strength instead of adding more employees.

"We are committed to honor all the offers we have made. Our focus will be on leveraging the capacity we built last year," Lakkad said.

The total workforce strength at TCS is 6,15,318 employees at the end of Q1 FY24.

Wipro

Wipro’s net headcount addition went down by 8,812 employees in Q1 FY24. This is in sharp contrast with the year ago quarter where the company added over 15,446 employees to its workforce. 

The company’s Chief Human Resources Officer, Saurabh Govil noted that Wipro would only hire for critical areas in the coming quarters.

 “Hiring is based on the macro environment, the demand. And we will continue to hire in critical areas. We're seeing a big investment in AI, data, security, engineering. We'll see continued hiring for these specialised skills as we move forward and calibrate it every quarter depending on the demand," the IT company’s CHRO said.

HCLTech’s employee headcount went down by 2506 employees in the first quarter of FY24. On the other hand, the company had added around 2089 employees in the first quarter of FY 23.

The company also announced that they would be deferring the annual salary hikes of some employees. 

Prateek Aggarwal, Chief Financial Officer at HCLTech told Business Today, “Based on the actions we have announced, we are confident in returning to the 18-19 per cent range. The actions include wage increment deferrals for senior staff and a decision on junior staff increments to be made in October.”

Infosys

Infosys’s employee headcount went down by over 7000 employees in Q1 FY 24. The reduction in employee headcount is in line with its peers Wipro and HCLTech. The company’s headcount now stands at 3,36,294 staff members.

Salil Parekh, the CEO of the company noted that they would be focusing on building their AI capabilities in the upcoming quarters. 

“Our generative AI capabilities are expanding well, with 80 active client projects. Topaz, our comprehensive AI offering, is resonating well with clients. We see this being transformative for clients and enhancing our overall service portfolio,” Parekh said.

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