TCS says it has ‘honoured’ job offers; expects attrition to ebb in H2

IT services major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) said that it has “honoured” all job offers made and estimates attrition to taper down in the second half of the year as compensation expectations “moderate”.

“Reflecting our culture of being committed to our employees, we have honoured all the job offers we had made. Our investments in capacity building and organic talent development have allowed us to substantially grow our business ahead of headcount addition this quarter,” said Milind Lakkad, Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) in the July-September results of the tech firm.

TCS' comments come on the back of joining delays in tech companies amidst margin pressure and fears of looming recession in US. TCS is the first IT firm to announce its quarterly results. Earlier firms like Wipro had said that it will onboard its campus recruits in a "phased manner" while TCS had told Mint that it was "staggering their campus hires".

Lakkad also commented on the ebbing attrition going ahead, which stood at 21.5% (last 12 months) for the fiscal third quarter. “We believe our quarterly annualised attrition has peaked in Q2 and should see it taper down from this point, while compensation expectations of experienced professionals moderate,” said the CHRO. Attrition in previous (April-June) quarter was 19.7%.

For about a year, the IT sector was in a hiring frenzy and employees were asking for 60-70% hikes, counter offers were made to retain them. “With normalising wage expectations and talent supply catching up across the industry, the company expects attrition to start to taper down in H2,” said the company.

TCS’ workforce was at 616,171 as on September 30, a net addition of 9,840 during the quarter. The company has onboarded 35,000 freshers in the first quarter and 20,000 in the second one. In a press briefing the CHRO said the firm may add another 10,000-12,000 freshers in the coming quarters. 

The company noted that monlighting is an "ethical issue" and the company's contract clearly states that an employee cannot work for any other organisation while working for TCS. 

“Moonlighting we believe, is an ethical issue...IT industry has adopted different models but today, our position is this,” said the CHRO in the press briefing. However, the company has not taken any action against those who have been caught moonlighting. The company's contract makes it clear that those working for TCS can not work for others. 

The tech firm highlighted that with time more employees will be asked to come to work. 

"One-third of our workforce is coming to office at least two times a week and this number will increase," said the CHRO.