Hiring shouldn’t be connected to quarterly growth, it is planned yearly: TCS CHRO Lakkad

TCS

Information technology (IT) behemoth Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), on July 10, said that hiring should not be directly correlated with quarterly revenue growth, as it focuses on annual workforce planning.

Lakkad was answering a question on whether the company would rethink its hiring target of over 42,000 freshers in the current fiscal as a result of subdued revenue growth.

“Hiring shouldn’t be connected to quarterly growth. Hiring is planned on a yearly basis,” Chief Human Resources Officer Milind Lakkad said while addressing a press conference after declaring the Q1FY26 results.

He added that TCS had hired aggressively initially, which later led to some business challenges. “That had caused some imbalance, but we are not that bothered as we will leverage this going forward.”

Moreover, CEO K Krithivasan added that the company sees a lot of pent-up demand, but it is held back because of a lack of clarity in the current macroeconomic uncertainty.

Lakkad also spoke about wage hikes, saying that TCS has not yet taken a final call on the hike cycle in light of these evolving business dynamics.

Last quarter, on April 10, he had said the firm is deferring wage hikes this year and will roll them out based on the business environment. "Because of the uncertain environment, we will decide during the year on wage hikes. It can be at anytime, depending on business," said Lakkad at the post-Q4 results press conference in Mumbai.

Meanwhile, the Mumbai-headquartered firm's net profit rose 6 percent year-on-year to Rs 12,760 crore. The earnings surpassed Street expectations. A Bloomberg consensus poll of analysts pegged TCS' April-June net profit growth at a muted 1.9% to Rs 12,263 crore.

It also reported $9.4 billion in total contract value (TCV) for the quarter ended June 30, beating Street estimates as deal closures remain robust despite macro challenges.

Also, read: TCS Q1 results: Headcount up 5,090 in second straight quarterly increase