HCLTech’s net headcount addition declined by 2,299 in the second quarter ended September 30 for the fiscal year 2024.
It says it is focusing on improving utilisation rates to maintain operating margin guidance amidst a tough business environment.
Fresher hiring
Fresher addition for the quarter stood at 3,630, up from last quarter’s 1,597.
Total headcount stands at 221,139.
The company intends to onboard 10,000 freshers in FY24.
Headcount decline
This is the second consecutive quarter of headcount decline.
In Q1 the headcount had dropped by 2,506, however it added 1,597 freshers in the same quarter.
Attrition for Q2 stood at 14.2 percent compared to 16.3 percent reported last quarter.
In Q2FY23, attrition was at 23.8 percent.
Rival performance
Meanwhile, rival Infosys too reported a headcount plunge of around 7,530 in Q2 FY24.
TCS’ headcount shrunk by 6,333 employees.
Company head statement
“Our employee count decreased by 1 percent on a sequential basis because we consciously didn’t backfill attrition as a lot of freshers we hired in the last 18 months are now ready to be deployed”, said HCLTech CEO and MD C Vijayakumar during the company’s Q2 FY24 earnings conference on October 12.
Ramachandran Sundararajan, chief people officer, HCLTech said, “We broadly are in line to close the year with 10,000 freshers. At 14.2 percent attrition, this is one of our best quarters. This is pretty much our pre-Covid levels.”
Hikes deferred
The firm also deferred hikes for its employees by a quarter as of Q1.
It also did away with hikes entirely for their senior management level employees for FY24, which forms a significant part of the company’s wage bill.
Utilization
Vijayakumar had said the company will look at improving utilisation among other aspects to maintain its FY24 full-year EBIT margin guidance of 18-19 percent.
“We do have some unutilized capacity, utilization can improve that will help the growth as well. But beyond a point, we will have to start hiring. Overall in FY24, people exit numbers will be higher than the FY23 exit numbers,” he said.
Net profit
The company reported 9.92 percent year-on-year (YoY) growth in net profit in the second quarter ended on September 30, 2023.
Net profit was up 8.55 percent driven by a robust deal pipeline reported this quarter which stood at Rs 3,833 crore.
Revenue
Consolidated revenue for the quarter grew 8 percent YoY at Rs 26,672 crore compared to Rs 24,686 Crore in Q2FY23.
EBIT margin improved by over 150 bps QoQ, coming in at 18.5 percent for Q2FY24.
