For the first time in 19 years, the headcount in Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has declined, ever since the company was listed in 2004, the company reported.
Headcount refers to the number of people working in a company or in a particular department over a given period of time.
TCS revealed on April 12 that its headcount has declined by 13,249, bringing down the number of the employee base to 601,546 in the financial year 202-24.
The net addition of new employees was just 22,600 in the whole year. Looking at FY22 data, when the Mumbai-based company gained an astounding net of 1.03 lakh employees, the reversal is even more pronounced. In Q4, the headcount decreased by 1,759 workers.
In the third quarter of FY24, 5,680 people fewer were working compared to the quarter in the previous fiscal year (FY23). In the second quarter, the company had 6,333 fewer employees overall. However, in the first quarter of FY24, the company actually hired 523 more employees.
TCS made a 9% increase in its profit for the fourth quarter of FY24 compared to the same period last year, with net profit reaching Rs 12,434 crore. Its revenue also went up by 3.5% to Rs 61,237 crore for the three months ending on March 31. Although the company's profit beat expectations, its revenue did not meet the estimated numbers.
Moreover, the Chief Human Resource Officer of TCS reported a decline in attrition (the rate at which people leave their jobs, either by quitting, retiring or getting fired) by 12.5 percent in the last quarter of FY24. The company expects this rate to come down further.
Following a period of intense recruiting by startups and enterprises due to the pandemic-driven digital boom, the attrition rate has been declining since its peak as the labour market has cooled.