TCS to hire employees fired from start-ups, looking to hire more Indian diaspora employees in US

TCS to hire employees fired from start-ups, looking to hire more Indian diaspora employees in US

Talking about reduction in staff in the last quarter Lakkad went on to explain that over the last year, the company has hired over 2 lakh people including 1.19 lakh trainees, who are still getting into billable projects and hence, the slowdown in new hires resulted in the decline.

FPJ Web DeskUpdated: Sunday, February 19, 2023, 05:59 PM IST
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TCS to hire employees fired from start-ups, looking to hire more Indian diaspora employees in US | Representative pic/ iStock

As a means to offer relief for those impacted by the layoff wave, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is looking to hire employees that were laid off from start ups. Milind Lakkad, chief human resources officer at TCS, told PTI that the company is not considering any layoffs as it believes in grooming talent for longer careers once it hires an employee.

This comes at a time when IT companies, including big tech giants across the globe, are laying off people for a slew of reasons.

"We don't do that (layoffs), we believe in grooming talent within the company.(there will be) no layoffs," Lakkad said, replying to a specific question on whether there will be layoffs or involuntary attrition.

While talking more about it, he said many companies are forced to take this step because they hired more than they wanted. While TCS follows a different ideology and believes that once a staff member joins, it is the company's responsibility to make them productive and derive value.

Lakkad added that in cases where there is a gap between the skill sets required and what an employee possesses, the company focuses on training the employee by giving her more time.

He also added that the company will be announcing hikes which will be similar to those from earlier years, and they will be looking to hire people who were fired by start ups, especially in sectors like education technology. The company is also looking for talent in user experience design, artificial intelligence, many aspects of cloud and having product experience

"It is a very large canvas, and we are doing exciting work across different industries and in different technologies. I think all of that requires some phenomenal talent to come in and participate. we are getting it obviously from startups, people who have actually done some good work in those companies and have short-term career challenges," he said.

ESOPs

When asked if TCS will be reviewing its stock option schemes, given that startups attract a lot of talent based on such offers, Lakkad said it is continuing to evaluate this aspect as it feels that both loyalty and performance play a significant role.

Talking about the reduction in staff in the last quarter, Lakkad went on to explain that over the last year, the company has hired over 2 lakh people, including 1.19 lakh trainees, who are still getting into billable projects, and hence, the slowdown in new hires resulted in the decline.

Over the next few quarters, the company does not see "significant additions" from a net employee 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.

Looking to hire more Indian origin employees in US

The company is also open to hiring people of Indian diaspora in the US who have lost their jobs with the tech majors and May be on the brink of being forced to return home as per their visa conditions, 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.

He also said that there is a need for quicker appointments and clearance for both business and H1 visas in the US, its largest market by revenue.

Moonlighting employees

On moonlighting by employees, Lakkad said action against potential violators is a work in progress at TCS, and it is accumulating data on the same.

Talking about the work from home setup, Lakkad said, at present, close to 40 per cent of the staff work from offices three times a week, and 60 per cent come two times a week.

"I expect these numbers (of those working from offices) to increase. By Q1 (FY24) it will have significantly gone up. by Q2 of FY24, we will decide the way forward," he added.

With inputs from PTI

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