HCL BPO to raise head count by 5000

HCL Technologies will be adding 5,000 people to its business process outsourcing (BPO) division which now has 10,000 members.

N Ranjit, CEO of HCL Technologies, said the 5,000 people would be added during July 1, 2006 and June 2007, which was the company's accounting year.

Majority of the additions would be in India while 150-200 could be recruited for the operations in Northern Ireland. The recruitments would be both for the voice and non-voice segments. HCL is endeavouring to balance its voice and non-voice businesses.

Non-voice, currently at 30% would increase to 50% over the next 2 years year. Ranjit said, the investment in employee additions by way of creating seats and building technology would be $25 million.

The BPO operations grew at 50% last year and the division was eyeing similar growth rates in the new year.Revenues of the division, which got merged into HCL Technologies with effect from April 1,2006, were $160 million.

As part of the growth strategy, HCL was scouting for acquisitions. Ranjit said, the division was looking at acquisitions in the US and UK. The size of the target acquisition would be in the range of $50-$100 million. Ranjit said, funding the acquisition would not be a problem since HCL Technologies was sitting on cash of $500 million.