TCS hiring lateral, to increasing fresher hiring in Jan

India's largest IT services company TCS, CEO says his company will be increasing its hiring process, give hike to employees, as well as increase capital expenditure in fiscal 2010-11. These steps can bring improvements in IT industry.

Mr N Chandrasekaran, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Tata Consultancy Services, in an interview to told Business Line, “We are likely to hire more people next year ( vis-à-vis the current fiscal) and we have also increased the quantum of work done offshore. This means we have to create more facilities going forward.”

The group chairman, Mr Ratan Tata, at the company's annual general meeting last year while had said in the year 2010-11 capex of the $6-billion company will possibly increase than the Rs 1,300 crore earmarked for the current year.

But Mr Chandrasekaran did not revealed the exact numbers as the company is still working on its plans for the next fiscal, ahead of its third quarterly results that are to be announced on January 15.

Towards the end of the year the IT spend has been able to recovery from the crisis which has been the driving force for TCS to increase its hiring plans for next year and it is being led by companies in the banking, financial sectors across geographies.

Mr. Chandrasekaran said, the companies from sectors such as manufacturing, hi-tech, telecom and manufacturing are still ‘not out of the woods', then also there are enough indications of things getting on to track next year. He added, “I believe that during the course of the year these sectors will turn positive and deliver growth. The good news is the decline (in these sectors) has stopped.”

TCS is hopeful that 2010 will be better year for the company and for the IT industry as a whole. Also, the growth will be mainly volume-driven.

Mr Chandrasekaran said, “Short term, there may not be a pricing uptake; but I do not expect a (pricing) decline either. As demand picks up, pricing power will return.”

Another, good news is that there has been improvement in the discretionary or optional technology spending among corporations, particularly in the BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance) space. He stated, TCS Bancs (its financial products suite), which is “positioned against discretionary budgets”, has signed deals across the world, and has been able to secure deals even in geographies such as continental Europe that are yet to see an uptake.

He added, “Fundamentally, there is lot more clarity and there is a systematic way of approaching business from the customers' end vis-à-vis last year. We just hope that Europe as geography also starts showing signs of recovery.”

From January, TCS will be visiting campuses for recruitment for 2010-11. For the current fiscal company has already given 24,888 offer letters for campus recruits, quite a good number, who will be joining in a spread out manner through the fiscal.

Previously, TCS had announced that it had almost frozen lateral hiring for the current fiscal this also, seems to change and the company is in the hiring process of laterals or experienced professionals.

Mr Chandrasekaran pointed out, TCS this year did not give hike in salaries, and is hopeful to be more lenient next year. Internal discussions are being held in the company to see how much wage hikes can be implemented next year.

However by the end of quarter September 2009, TCS had registered a 29 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 1,642 crore against Rs 1,271 crore in the corresponding year ago period.