Reliance Beats SBI To Become India’s 2nd Biggest Employer With 3.42 Lakh Employees; Which Is #1 Employer?

For the first time in the financial year 2022, the headcount for Reliance Industries has passed 300,000-mark.

This comes amid extensive hiring in the retail unit as now the group is transitioning from being a pure commodity player to a services-driven conglomerate.

The numbers of Reliance surpassed that of the IT bellwether Infosys and state-owned firms like Coal India and State Bank of India (SBI). 

Companies & Headcount

Companies	2019	2020	2021	2022
TCS	4,24,285	4,48,464	4,88,649	5,92,195
RIL	1,94,056	1,95,618	2,36,334	3,42,982
Infosys	2,28,123	2,42,371	2,59,619	3,14,015
Coal India	2,85,479	2,72,445	2,59,016	2,48,550
SBI	2,57,252	2,49,448	2,45,652	2,44,250
Wipro	1,71,425	1,82,886	2,01,665	2,43,073
HCL Technologies	1,37,965	1,50,423	1,68,977	2,08,877
Tech Mahindra	1,21,082	1,25,236	1,21,054	1,51,173
HDFC Bank	98,061	1,16,971	1,20,093	1,41,579

As many as 2,32,822 new employees were added whereas 99,524 were lost due to voluntary separation. However there is no confirmation about the involuntary exits. Speaking about gender inclusivity, women accounted for 18.4 percent of its total workforce at end of March 2022.

Speaking of the sector wise breakup, the retail unit employs 63% of total group workforce. 

The parent RIL had 22,642 employees as of March 2022.

Number of employees (as of March 2022)

Retail	2,15,614
Jio	83,347
RIL	22,642
Others	21,379
Total Reliance employees	3,42,982

The headcount which was 2,36,334 on March 31, 2021 has increased by 45% to 3,42,982 as of March 2022.

In the annual report, the company said that “As one of India’s largest private sector employers, Reliance focuses on fostering the sustained development of its human capital through a well-defined strategy underlined with care, empathy, inclusiveness and respect”.

As per the Bloomberg data, retaining the top spot in the total headcount is TCS.

Other than TCS and Reliance, the only other firm with more than 300,000 employees was Infosys.

Other which employ around 200,000 employees include Coal India, SBI, Wipro and HCL Technologies.

Over the past five years, the headcounts of TCS and Infosys increased at a compounded rate of about 9 percent. HCL Technologies saw its employee strength growing by 12.5 percent during the same period.

By the end of March 2022, the top four software exporters — TCS, Infosys, HCL Technologies and Wipro — together had an employee count of 13.58 lakh.