HCL attrition rate rises to 23.8%; plans to hire over 10,000 freshers in Q2

BENGALURU:  IT firm HCL Technologies’ attrition rate jumped to 23.8% as of June 30, 2022, compared to 11.8% in the same quarter last year. The firm expects this rate to continue in the second quarter too before stabilising from the second half of this fiscal. IT companies have been reporting over 18-20% attrition for a few quarters now. HCL on Tuesday posted a 2.4% increase in its net profit at Rs 3,283 crore for the first quarter ended June 2022. Its net profit in the year-ago period was Rs 3,205 crore. 

Its revenue from operations grew 17% in the first quarter at Rs 23,464 crore, compared to Rs 20,068 crore in the same quarter last year. The company added 6,023 freshers during the first quarter, and it plans to onboard 10,400 freshers in the second quarter. HCL Technologies’ Chief Human Resources Officer Apparao VV said that overall, the company will be recruiting 30,000-35,000 freshers in FY23. It has also increased its headcount in tier-2 and 3 centres such as Madurai, Lucknow and Vijayawada. The company’s present headcount is 2,10,966.

“Our supply chain is distributed and new talent markets will be explored,” he said, adding that at present, 12-15% of its workforce are working from the office. Talking about the company’s Q1 performance, HCL Technologies CEO and MD C Vijayakumar said, “Our services business continues to have robust growth momentum, growing at 19% Y-o-Y in constant currency, driven by our digital engineering and digital application services with cloud adoption being a horizontal theme across all services and verticals.”
HCL’s new bookings grew 23.4% Y-o-Y and our pipeline remains near-record high, he added. The IT company’s operating margin stood at 17%, and its EBITDA margin at 21.2%. 

IT sector attrition rate
HCL expects the attrition rate to continue in the second quarter before stabilising in the second half. IT firms have been reporting over 18-20% attrition for a few quarters