HCLTech sees headcount decline by 8,080 in Q1FY25

Representative image

India's third largest IT services major HCLTech’s headcount decreased by 8,080 employees in the first quarter, ended June 30, 2024. The company said it lost around 7,398 employees due to a divestiture.

The total headcount for Q1 stood at 219,401.

This comes after HCLTech bucked the industry-wide hiring trend in Q4FY24, by reporting net headcount addition in both YoY and sequential basis, at a time when rivals like Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, and Wipro reported negative headcount addition.

As of Q1, HCLTech added 1,078 freshers, and plans to onboard a total of 10,000 freshers in FY25.

In Q1, TCS added 5,452 employees on a net basis, reversing three straight quarters of decline.

Speaking at the Q1 earnings conference on July 11, Ramachandran Sundararajan, chief people officer, HCLTech said, "We need to look at the headcount taking into account the divestiture that happened this quarter with State Street. Outside of that it is effectively flat QoQ, in line with what we had planned given the investments we had made in the previous quarters in preparation for the off shore transitions planed for a couple of large engagements. So  headcount is in line with what we had planned for."

In April 2024, HCL Investments UK, had got into an agreement to sell its entire 49 per cent stake in a joint venture (JV) with US-based State Street International Holdings.

HCLTech’s attrition rate in the last twelve-month (LTM) basis increased sequentially to 12.8 percent, from 12.4 percent in Q4. On a YoY basis, it had improved significantly from 16.3 percent in Q1FY24.

"Attrition is at 12.78% LTM for IT services continues to be at the lower thresholds that we have had for many quarters now. That continues to be a positive story we expect this to stabilise at similar levels," he added.

Sundararajan also shared that the company will add incrementally about 20,000 people trained and certified in  generative AI every quarter; so that by the end of the year, they will cross the 100,000 mark in terms of Gen AI upskilling.