Closing Case TCS Story

How TCS Manages Its Huge Workforce

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the country's largest provider of IT services, has over
300,000 people on its rolls and plans to add another 55,000 in the current financial year. This
 within striking distance of the country's largest
will bring TCS
sector, state-owned Coal India which has 357,000 employees. For the HR
these men and women
challenge is not just the scale but also that accounted for 37%
employer in the
and
2013-2014,
in 50 countries. Employees of represetotalnt 118,
down from 37.84% a year ago because of the weakeningtheof the
are located

Executive VPand Head of Global HR Ajoy

Mukherjee, the
profits. ITchallenge is to
between the need for acharged-up workforce and
employee costs under compani
control is to hire fresh e s havs
etrikereal aa
getting graduates
one way to keep
in large numbers. They are inexpensive manpower. But
substantial investments in training and the cost advantage gets negated.
the wrong peoplrom e,ca
At TCS, aCcording to Mukherjee, manpower planning is done at least
advance. The projections get refined for each year: And the company starts ihre
for recruitment one-an-a-half years in advance. Mukerjee's team visits
every year from September to mid-February. The team creates a pool ofalmost Visit ng cartiy
assessed through an online test, followed by two rounds of interview.
students join TCS. The bulk of these freshers come from Around students
engineering
level salary, which has remained unchanged for five years now, of R3.15collegesto at an et
The bane of the IT sector is high employee turnover. 33.50
Replacements need to lakh.
trained, and there's a cost attached to it. So, most
companies want to keep be
as possible. TCS's attrition of 11.43% in 2013-2014 may have risen
but it is still among the lowest in the from 10.57%
iattritionhireda
n
as
industry. At Infosys, attrition was at 18.7u
March-ended quarter, while at Wipro it was at 15.1%.
2012-
But even at this low attrition, TCS has to
hire and train at least 30,000
in a year One way out of the annual additional bot
in 2013-2014 (average of 7% in exercise is to give regular
increments. TCS oave h
2012-2013),
benchmark of 7to 9% for offshore employees. which compares favorably with the indnsn
The Social Network
Mukherjee says his prime concern is to meet the
born in the 1980s and early 1990s) who aspirations of the young employees (thos
with the goals of this generation, make up 80% of the workforce. To keep in toud
did a survey of India's younger Mukherjee again relied on technology. In 2013, TG
has
cities. The biggest finding was thatgeneration, covering 17,500 high school students acros
had a constant need to be this generation was a heavy user of
online. smart devices a
social network. This is significant asThis led to the creation of Knome. TCS's internal ont
platforms such as Facebook or Twitter several IT companies do not allow
to connect through during work hours,but Knomeemployees to au
brass to connect withposts, discussions, and blogs. This is als0 a popularallows
all. CEON.
emy
platform forthe
employees, has chosen to post his
largest number. This is
Chandrasekaran, rather than sending emails to individ1al
thoughts on this platform, the
also aplatformthat ensuring it reaches Outto
instance, some helps employees
employees thought that half-sleeve
in India since the
reach their voice to the top.For

country hot. They created

is shirts can be a offormal dressing
part
Mukherjee is looking at consensus no
annd
does an annual Pulse making such shirts a part of the among the In addition,
employees
Survey which takes every TCS dress
code.
employees feedback on things that matter
 tothemn.
The feedback is confidential and the HR team works on each of the issues raised
during the survey.
ere than the sheer number of employees, what worries Mukheriee is how to keep this
300,000-strong worktorce relevant in the fast-changing world of technology? TCS does it
by
Ghifing employees across departments and organizing training programs. However,
hecause the training programs require itsemployees to move from one office to another
cross geographies, they can also be a difficult exercise in compliance, especially to rules
nertaining to visas. HoW do we ensure we are compliant? The risk to reputation is very
high, Mukherjee adds.
In spite of the rapid rise in the employee base, TCS's revenue per employee increased
From $41,900 in 2011-2012 to $44,600 in 2013-2014.
Discussion Questions
1Discuss how TCS aligns HRP tobusiness strategy.
2. How is the HRP different from the Tata Steel?
Source: Shivani Shinde Nadhe, 'How TCS Manages Its Huge Workforce; Business Standard, June 5, 2014.