Attrition at HCL Technologies jumped during March quarter, hitting nearly 8.8% during the quarter, or 35% on an annualized basis, raising concerns.
The attrition levels have been around 25% (on an annualized basis) for most IT majors over the last several quarters.
The company hired 7,534 employees during the quarter, but 6,381 employees left the organization. As a result, employee headcount increased by just 1,153 to 73,420 employees — one of the lowest levels of headcount increase by the company in several quarters.
The BPO arm continued to bleed from eye-popping attrition levels — losing nearly a third of its 11,000 or so employees in just one quarter. It was able to stem the net loss to just 464 employees thanks to a hiring of 3,127 employees during the quarter.
For IT services, it was slightly better, at a loss of 2,800 employees from a base of around 61,000. The company, however, hired back aggressively recruiting 4,407 people during the quarter, resulting in a net hiring of 1,617 people.
Most of the hiring, both in BPO and IT, were at the ‘experienced’ or lateral level, rather than from the campuses. 3,457 of the 4,407 hired in IT, for example, were from other companies — indicating that salary levels may be headed north uncomfortably.
