'We believe in grooming talent': TCS' top official says not planning layoffs, hiring those impacted from startups

Amidst layoffs in the various sectors, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has said that it is not considering any layoffs as it believes in grooming talent for longer careers once it hires an employee.

The country's largest information technology services exporter is also looking to hire startup employees who have lost their jobs, its chief Human Resources officer Milind Lakkad told news agency PTI in an interview.

"We don't do that (layoffs), we believe in grooming talent in the company (there will be) no layoffs," Lakkad said.

He said many companies are forced to take such a step because they hired more than they wanted. Whereas TCS, which he cited as "cautious", believes that once a staff member joins, it is the company's responsibility to make them productive and derive value.

In cases where it finds a gap between the skill sets required and what an employee possesses, it focuses on training the employee by giving her more time, Lakkad added.

He said the company, which employs over 6 lakh people, will be announcing hikes which will be similar to earlier years.

Lakkad told PTI that TCS will be looking to hire workers impacted by layoffs.

He said TCS is doing exciting work across different industries in different technologies and for that, there is a requirement for some phenomenal talent to come in and participate.

To a question on whether the decline of over 2,000 staffers in overall employee count in the December quarter was a one-off, Lakkad did not specify if the March quarter will have an addition or continue with a decline.

Over the next few quarters, the company does not see "significant additions" from a net employees standpoint, Lakkad said, pointing out that it is leveraging its past investments now.

This will lead to an increase in the overall utilisation number, before it starts going down as the over 40,000 trainees it expects to hire in FY24 start coming in, Lakkad said.

At present, 70 per cent of its US employees are Americans, Lakkad said, adding that it would like to get the number down to 50 per cent because it also wants to offer global opportunities to its staff in India.

Recently, Wipro terminated hundreds of fresher employees over poor performance. The company told Business Today that it had to let go of 452 freshers after they performed poorly in assessments repeatedly even after training.

Infosys, too, reportedly let go off over 600 employees who failed the company’s internal evaluation test.

(With inputs from PTI)

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