HR executives grapple with keeping hundreds of thousands of staffers, across 45 countries and mostly below 30 years, fully utilised and motivated
Apart from being a $10-billion company, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the country’s largest information technology services company, is also a high-magnitude employer. It increased its personnel to 238,000 over 2011-12 and these numbers are to go up, since the plan is to hire another 50,000 for 2012-13.
These plans would be reviewed, based on staff utilisation. If the latter rate goes above 82 per cent, it may instead hire only lateral replacements. For the quarter ended March 31, the utilisation rate (excluding trainees) was 80.6 per cent and including trainees was 71.3 per cent. The company has said its comfort level in terms of utilisation was 82 per cent.
Ajoy Mukherjee, executive vice-president and head of global human resources, says US visa rejection rates have gone up and the company has planned to opt for H1 visas compared to L1-A and L1-B visas. “Visa rejection in the L-category have gone up and is close to 50 per cent. So, we have changed our focus to opting for H1-B visas. Last year, we had applied for 4,500 H1 visas. This year, the number will be higher,” said Mukherjee.
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He also said TCS would hire more locals (abroad). Last year, it had taken close to 1,000 on a temporary basis, above gross hiring of 1,600 in the US.
With a headcount of 238,000, Mukherjee’s task of keeping this employee base engaged and imbibing the TCS culture is becoming crucial. The company hired 70,000 during FY12, an average of 35 per hour across the globe. It spends 9,000 person years of effort annually in learning and development activity. This includes the initial training a TCSer gets on joining from a college campus. Those staffers represent 67 nationalities. and that means its 2,000-strong human resources team has to comply with at least 600 regulations in 45 countries.
In terms of career management, the company needs to manage performance appraisals twice a year. This includes engaging with employees across the board in a one-to-one interaction. Of all employees, women are 31.5 per cent. The average age of a TCS employee is 28-years.
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Even so, from Mukherjee’s comments, the TCS headcount will continue to grow. “Our headcount will grow as we expand into new geographies. For FY13, while 43,600 offers are for campuses in India, the rest of the numbers include both laterals and training staff in different regions. We will add trainees in regions like the US, China and Latin America,” said Mukherjee.
One of the biggest challenges is to be able to keep in touch continuously with this employee base.
“Especially when you have 69 per cent of GenY as your workforkce. While we have such a diverse workforce, we need to also focus in building a TCS culture. Hence, continuous engagement with employees is crucial,” he said. That means enough activities for the employees and not just about work, to keep motivation high.