HCL Tech to hire 20,000 people in next 2 quarters

IT services major HCL Technologies is looking at hiring about 20,000 people over the next two quarters to meet the demand coming in on the back of strong growth in deal signing and adoption of digital services.

The Noida-based company, which crossed $10 billion milestone in the calendar year 2020, had 159,682 employees at the end of December 31, 2020.

It saw a gross addition of 12,422 people, while net addition during the December 2020 quarter was of 6,597 people.

Attrition for IT services (on last 12 month basis) was at 10.2 per cent.

"There was a net hiring of over 6,500 people in Q3 (third quarter).

“There is a big demand pipeline and so, we are continuing to hire both freshers and lateral talent to fulfil the demand," HCL Technologies president and CEO C Vijayakumar told PTI.

He added that "I foresee about 20,000 people to be hired - both freshers and laterals - in the next 4-6 months based on the demand that we have seen".

He added that about 15 per cent of these would be for onshore locations or client geographies with the remaining will be offshore.

During its third quarter earnings briefing, Vijayakumar had said a combination of a strong pipeline and good order booking gave HCL Technologies a lot of optimism about the growth trajectory.

Asked if the company anticipated any visa-related issues in the coming quarters, Vijayakumar said about 69.8 per cent per cent of the company's headcount in the US comprises locals.

"Many companies, including us, have reduced dependence on visa significantly by increasing local hiring and building a base.

"In fact, in the last quarter of localisation ratio went up from 67 per cent to 70 per cent almost. So, our dependence on visas is low," Vijayakumar said.

Over the past few months, HCL Technologies has invested in setting up facilities in countries like Sri Lanka and Vietnam.

In June last year, HCL Technologies started operations in Sri Lanka and said it planned to create over 1,500 local employment opportunities over the next 18 months.

In December, HCL Technologies announced setting up its first delivery centre in Vietnam at Hanoi with plans to hire more than 3,000 people over the next three years.

"We are constantly looking for locations from where we can execute our delivery.

“Today, offshore is largely centred in India and some Eastern European countries," he added.

Vijayakumar added that he believes there is a good opportunity to expand it a little broader.

"That's why we chose Sri Lanka for IT services and for engineering services, we chose Vietnam as a base to further expand."

This is also going to help HCL Technologies to service the Asia-Pacific and Japan market for engineering clients, he added.

Photograph: Mansi Thapliyal/Reuters