11,781 Employees Exit From TCS, Infosys In Q3; Should University Students Worry Over Campus Hiring?

A total of 11,781 employees have together left India's two largest IT companies, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Infosys from October to December 2023 for the financial year 2023-24. IT sector companies struggle with low discretionary spending, with businesses in BFSI and CMT segments under pressure due to challenging conditions in the US. Broadly, in FY24, the hiring plan by Indian IT companies has been dull, which can be worrisome for university students hoping for campus hiring!

More employees left Infosys than TCS in Q3FY24. However, both companies recorded slower exits in Q3 than compared to the previous quarter.

TCS Employees:

TCS' workforce stood at 603,305 by the end of the December 2023 quarter, fewer by 5,680 employees compared to 608,985 as of September 30, 2023. On year-on-year, TCS let go of 10,669 employees as against the headcount of 613,974 employees as of December 2022. In Q3FY23, TCS's headcount declined by 2,197 employees.

Further, TCS' IT services' attrition was at 13.3% for the last twelve months, declining from the attrition rate of 14.9% in Q2FY24 and 21.3% in Q3FY23.

As of December 31, 2023, TCS employees base continued to be very diverse, with 35.7% women and 153 nationalities.

Infosys Employees:

By the end of Q3FY24, Infosys' headcount stood at a total of 322,663 employees, as compared to 328,764 employees by the end of the September 2023 quarter. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, Infosys let go of 6,101 employees.

Compared to a headcount of 346,845 people in Q3FY23, Infosys has let go overall 24,182 employees overall.

Meanwhile, Infosys voluntary attrition (LTM-Services) rate declined to 12.9% by the end of Q3FY24 as against 14.6% in Q2FY24 and 24.3% in Q3FY23.

Should university students worry about campus hiring?

Both TCS and Infosys are not planning hiring for the remaining quarter of FY24. Indian IT companies are the largest campus recruiters in India with TCS topping its peers. The placement season at universities begins from December onward and can continue for three to six weeks. Infosys is also among the leading recruiters.

However, TCS is committed to campus hiring but from next financial year, Infosys has announced to skip it.

Infosys' outgoing Chief Financial Officer Nilanjan Roy said in a press conference on January 11 that Infosys continues to monitor its utilization and flexi hiring model. At this stage, he added, Infosys is not looking at any immediate campus requirement. Nevertheless, Roy also pointed out that Infosys has a very strong off-campus program just in case they witness a volume uptick.

As for TCS, its Chief HR Officer, Milind Lakkad said, "The vibrancy and energy levels in our offices are increasing as more and more of our employees are back in the offices. We expect to be back to our normal operating mode by the end of the current fiscal year."

Lakkad added, "Parallelly, attrition is trending down and at 13.3%, is now in our range of comfort. We are committed to hiring from college campuses and growing talent organically. We have commenced our campus hiring process for the next year and see tremendous excitement among freshers to join TCS."

TCS is making good progress in upskilling its employees in Generative AI through its AI playground platform.

TCS has a target of hiring 40,000 freshers for the financial year FY24.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has declared five days a five-day-a-week hybrid policy. Infosys declared its own compulsory hybrid policy where employees will be required to attend office locations for at least 10 days each month.

Infosys Hybrid Workplace solution is a unified platform to allows organizations to provide seamless experience for their employees while they work from home or the office. This solution provides a unique seamless experience for employees and teams for a perfect mix of office & remote work. Workplace visibility and planning capabilities enable optimal usage of office spaces. This solution is realized by leveraging Microsoft Power Platform and Microsoft's extended stack. It is enabled to sit on top of any ecosystem.