TCS headcount drops by 1400 in the first quarter of the financial year 2018

IT major Tata Consultancy Services’ ( TCS) headcount dropped by over 1400 for the quarter ended June 30, 2017.

"The net headcount dropped because fewer freshers were on boarded in the first quarter. But that is just a timing issue; more will be onboarded in Q2" CEO Rajesh Gopinathan said on a conference call with analysts.

TCS is the largest IT services firm in India and employed 385,809 people at the end of June 30, 2017. This is the first time in three years that TCS has reported a drop in the overall headcount. The headcount number fell by 1414 from 387,223 to 385,809.

“Hiring is strong but overall we had mentioned that hiring this year is going to be lower than last year,” said Ajoyendra Mukherjee, EVP and Head, Global Human resource at TCS.

Industry body Nasscom’s annual review said jobs grew by 5% in FY17 and there may be a 20-25% reduction over the next three years.

As jobs get automated IT companies are looking at ways to optimise their workforce and improve the productivity of employees through training. “We have tremendous focus on increasing the productivity of employees through training. We have trained 2,15,000 employees trained of digital. And the number of trainees we had given offers in the prior year, more than 40,000 offers, they are coming in,” Mukherjee added.

TCS' revenue from digital services stood at 18.9 %, up 7.6 percent sequentially and 26 percent on a YoY basis.