HCLTech sees headcount reduce sequentially in Q1, defers hikes by a quarter

Prior fresher additions were also a reason to not backfill attrition, according to the management.

HCLTech, which reported a big miss on its numbers and saw its performance being impacted more than expected, has deferred its hikes for its employees by a quarter. Albeit a seasonally weak quarter for HCLTech, macroeconomic factors also weighed on the company’s performance.

“Typically, this time of the year, we make our announcements on pay reviews. Last couple of years the hiring that we have done and the compensation reviews that we have done, we have taken that into consideration and have taken a decision to defer our annual reviews by a quarter,” said Chief People Officer Ramachandran Sundararajan.

This comes as the company’s headcount on a net basis has declined by 2,506 employees, bringing its headcount to 2,23,438. The decline in headcount was due to a conscious decision by the management to not backfill all attrition, according to Chief Executive Officer C Vijayakumar.

Additionally, Sundararajan said that the prior fresher additions are also a reason to not backfill attrition.

“If you look at the number of freshers we’ve added in the last couple of years, last two years we’ve been making those investments to add freshers, they go through a cycle of training before they get productive, so that’s also flowing through into our productive capacity. That’s one of the reasons we didn’t go for replacement hires this quarter,” Sundararajan added.

The IT major added 1,597 freshers during the quarter.

The overall decline in headcount, Sundarajan said, of 1.1 percent quarter-on-quarter, is in line with the company’s revenue performance.

Last quarter, HCLTech reported the best net addition among its tier-1 peers at 3,674.

Its attrition has also fallen by 320 bps quarter-on-quarter — from 19.5 percent to 16.3 percent, bringing the figure to HCLTech’s pre-pandemic numbers.

“In Q1FY24, our revenue and people strength sequentially moderated in line with the demand environment. These large deals helped offset cuts in discretionary spending in these verticals. We are expecting other verticals to pick up as well shortly,” Vijayakumar said.