Country’s third largest IT services major HCLTech has raised entry-level salaries for freshers with specialised skills sets in artificial intelligence (AI) and its adjacent technologies, with compensation packages going as high as Rs. 18 lakhs to Rs 22 lakhs per annum.
The company is internally calling this group of freshers, the ‘elite cadre’ of engineers who will be specialised in data and AI, digital engineering practice, cybersecurity practice, enterprise skills.
Speaking at HCLTech’s earnings conference for the December quarter on January 12, Ram Sundararajan, Chief People Officer said, “Two quarters back, we did very proactively talk about the elite engineers. We had shared that our entry-level salaries will have the elite Cardre earning 3X – 4X of the regular hires. That 3X- 4X is anywhere between Rs 18 lakhs to 22 lakhs.”
“We have to be competitive to be able to attract the best of talents that we want for our elite cadre,” he added.
In July 2025, Sundararajan has shared that the elite cadre would be roughly about 15-20 per cent of the overall fresher hiring target, as the company would focus on quality and specialisation over quantity.
Also read: HCLTech says specialisation to drive fresher hiring, 'elite' cadres to get 4X higher pay
Infosys is hiking salaries too
Not just HCLTech, rival Infosys too recently raised its fresher salaries.
According to social media posts and banners reviewed and verified by Moneycontrol in December, Infosys is set to launch an off-campus hiring drive for 2025 engineering and computer science graduates to recruit talent for specialised technology roles, with annual compensation ranging from Rs 7 lakh to Rs 21 lakh.
How many freshers will HCLTech hire in FY26?
HCLTech closed Q3 with a marginal headcount decline of 261 employees, taking its total employee base to 2,26,379 at the end of Q3FY26.
The sequential dip came despite the company adding 2,852 freshers during the quarter, indicating that overall workforce movement was shaped by attrition and selective rationalisation rather than a broad-based hiring pullback.
Total fresher addition for the fiscal year 2026 now stands at 10,032, which is almost two-thirds hirgher than what HCLTech had on boarded in the same period last year.
“That's one of the targets that we had set at the beginning of this fiscal that our fresher addition this year will be significantly higher compared to last year,” Sundararajan said.
Voluntary attrition eased further to 12.4 percent on a last-twelve-month basis, down from 13.2 percent a year ago, suggesting improving employee retention even as net headcount stayed in the red.
HCLTech’s Q3 results
The Noida-headquartered company reported net profit decline of 11 percent year-on-year to Rs 4,076 crore. Although consolidated revenue increased 13.3 per cent from a year earlier to Rs 33,872 crore in the quarter ending December 31.
The company has also revised its full-year revenue growth guidance to be between 4-4.5 percent YoY in CC terms. Services revenue growth is expected to be between 4.75 percent and 5.25 percent YoY in CC.
EBIT margin or operating margin will be between 17.0 per cent - 18.0 per cent, excluding the one-time impact from the new labour laws.
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