HCL Tech to go slow on lateral hiring but will hire 15,000 freshers

The company yet to take a call on promotions and wage hikes.

Swathi Moorthy

May 07, 2020 / 16:24 IST

26 Aug, 2025 12:21

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HCL Technologies will go slow on lateral hires due to drop in demand on the back of the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, pandemic. However the company will go ahead with the hiring of 15,000 freshers as planned for FY21.

This is in line with the industry trend, where most IT majors have honoured the offers made, but froze hiring, primarily lateral hires, for FY21 due to uncertainty around the pandemic.

Speaking to Moneycontrol, Prateek Aggarwal, its CFO, said, “Hiring itself will be slow for multiple reasons. For one, iteration (demand cycle) itself has come down. Volumes are going to be lower as well. So, hiring will also reduce.”

In addition, there is increased focus on improving utilisation of existing employees and reduction in employee attrition. The company’s attrition has fallen to 16.3 percent in FY20 from 17.7 percent on a year-on-year basis. Lower attrition means that the need to fill replacement roles is reduced.

Apparao VV, CHRO, HCL Tech, pointed out that slowdown in the hiring process was also on these accounts. The company employed about 150,423 people at the end of March 31.

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