HCLTech’s net headcount addition has declined by 2,299 in the second quarter ended September 30 for the fiscal year 2024, as the company is focussing on improving utilisation rates to maintain operating margin guidance amidst a tough business environment.
Fresher addition for the quarter stood at 3,630, up from last quarter’s 1,597. Total headcount stood at 221,139. HCLTech plans to onboard 10,000 freshers in FY24.
This is the second consecutive quarter of headcount decline for HCLTech. The company’s headcount in Q1 had dropped by 2,506. The company, however, added 1,597 freshers during Q1.
HCLTech’s attrition for Q2 stood at 14.2 percent compared to 16.3 percent reported last quarter. In Q2FY23, attrition was at 23.8 percent.
Meanwhile, rival Infosys too reported a headcount plunge of around 7,530 in Q2 FY24. TCS, which reported its Q2 earnings October 11, saw headcount shrunk by 6,333 employees.
"Our employee count decreased by 1 percent on a sequential basis because we consciously didn't backfill attrition as a lot of freshers we hired in the last 18 months are now ready to be deployed", said HCLTech CEO and MD C Vijayakumar during the company's Q2 FY24 earnings conference on October 12.
Ramachandran Sundararajan, chief people officer, HCLTech said, "We broadly are line to close the year with 10,000 freshers. At 14.2 percent attrition, this is one of our best quarters. This is pretty much our pre-covid levels."
HCLTech had also deferred hikes for its employees by a quarter as of Q1 and did away with hikes entirely for their senior management level employees for FY24, which forms a significant part of the company’s wage bill.
In Q1FY24 earnings, HCLTech’s Vijayakumar had said that the company will look at improving utilisation among other aspects to maintain its FY24 full-year EBIT margin guidance of 18-19 percent.
“We do have some unutilized capacity, utilization can improve that will help the growth as well. But beyond a point, we will have to start hiring. Overall in FY24, people exit numbers will be higher than the FY23 exit numbers,” he had added.
HCLTech, the country's third largest IT services company reported 9.92 percent year-on-year (YoY) growth in net profit in the second quarter that ended on September 30, 2023. Sequentially, net profit was up 8.55 percent driven by a robust deal pipeline reported this quarter. Net profit for Q2FY24 stood at Rs 3,833 crore.
Consolidated revenue for the quarter grew 8 percent YoY at Rs 26,672 crore as compared to Rs 24,686 Crore in Q2FY23.
The company's EBIT margin improved by over 150 bps QoQ, coming in at 18.5 percent for Q2FY24.
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