HCL Tech looks to hire more talent from tier-2 and 3 cities

Bringing jobs closer to talent is a strategy HCL Technologies had adopted about five years ago as 87% of its workforce does not belong to the cities they work in.

“By bringing jobs closer to them, people don’t have to travel, leaving their families behind. For us, cost is not the primary driver. Stability is the bigger advantage,” Apparao V.V., chief human resources officer, HCL, said in an interview. “We will hire more in tier-2 and tier-3 cities,” he said.

As part of this strategy, HCL Technologies has established a campus each in Lucknow, Madurai, Nagpur and Vijayawada. In February, the company had announced plans to add up to 1,000 employees each in Vijayawada and Nagpur. It currently employs 6,000 people each in Lucknow and Madurai and about 3,000 people each in Nagpur and Vijayawada.

The Noida-based company had earlier announced plans to hire 17,000-20,000 freshers in FY22 based on talent availability and the demand environment.

“The demand cuts across both traditional and new skills. While skills in digital, cybersecurity, internet of things and cloud are very hot, traditional skills such as Java, .Net and J2EE are also in demand,” Apparao said.

The attrition rate at HCL Technologies fell to 9.9% in the March quarter from 10.2% in the previous quarter. However, the company is taking measures related to competitive salaries, bonuses and upskilling to retain talent as the demand environment improves.

“While there is no silver bullet to contain attrition, we increased our employee engagement and connect programmes so that we get the feedback early in the lifecycle if somebody has a tendency to leave,” Apparao said.

Several IT companies did not offer salary hikes last year, but HCL Technologies doled out increments with a lag of three months.