IT major HCLTech added 3,489 employees in the September quarter, reversing the trend from Q1 when its headcount had declined by 269. The headcount expansion came despite a restructuring exercise that led to the laying off of some employees due to a “location-skill mismatch”, the company’s management said on Monday.
HCLTech’s total employee count stood at 226,640 at the end of September 2025, up from 223,151 in the previous quarter — a 1.6% increase quarter-on-quarter. The company also hired 5,196 freshers during the quarter, bringing total fresher additions in H1 FY26 to 7,180.
This means the company has already achieved the bulk of its fresher hiring target for the year. In Q1, HCLTech had announced plans to onboard 10,000–12,000 freshers in FY26. The company also introduced a key change in its compensation structure for junior employees.
“We have decided to discontinue quarterly variable pay for junior employees. The amount will be part of the fixed component in their salaries. The performance-linked annual bonus continues (to be in place) for both junior and senior employees,” said Ram Sundarajan, CHRO, HCLTech.
Attrition at HCLTech moderated sequentially to 12.6% in Q2, down from 12.8% in Q1. The increase in HCLTech’s headcount stands in contrast to market leader Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), which reported a 3% decline in total employees. TCS closed the fiscal second quarter with a headcount of 593,314 employees, compared to 613,069 in the June quarter.
Its attrition rate stood at 13.3%, down slightly from 13.8% in Q1 but still above the company’s stated range of 12–13%.
TCS’ headcount was impacted by its restructuring initiative, which included the laying off of 6,000 employees globally, along with performance-linked and bench policy-related involuntary attrition in addition to voluntary exits.
HCLTech also reiterated its focus on building AI capabilities within its workforce. “Our people are embracing the transformation from a people-based business towards a model that seamlessly blends AI IP (artificial intelligence intellectual property) with human-in-the-loop capabilities,” said C Vijayakumar, MD and CEO of HCLTech.
He called out the firm’s maturity of enabling ecosystems consisting of its employees and partners as one of the axes for growth. “We see good demand for OpenAI enterprise adoption and we are training more people to support this journey,” he added.