Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) HR head Sudeep Kunnumal recently responded to speculation surrounding possible layoffs at the IT major. During the company’s Q2 earnings call earlier this month, Kunnumal clarified that TCS is not “chasing a target” for job cuts and emphasised that the company will “evaluate everyone” instead.
Meanwhile the earnings call, analyst Surendra Goyal from Citi asked:
“The second question is with the release of 1 % workforce, the headcount declined by 20,000 or 3 %. And what you announced earlier was 2%. So, should we expect a similar headcount reduction in the next quarter as well?
Kunnumal replied, “So almost-see, the 20,000 head count is a factor of voluntary and involuntary attrition. So you should see that. But as we announced, against the 2 percentage, we have midway, so we have done approximately 1 percentage of it. And like what Krithi just mentioned, we don’t have a target.”
He further said, “We are not chasing a target. We’ll continue to evaluate everyone after all the investment in learning and development that we’ve done…”
Goyal also asked: “So, just to clarify, there will be no involuntary attrition beyond the 1% number, is that understanding correct?”
Kunnumal answered: “No, no, I didn’t say that. See, we estimate it to be 2%. We are currently at 1%, and we will continue to evaluate people whom we can redeploy – whom we are not redeploying, and those are the people that we will release.”
During the earnings call, TCS’s HR chief also mentioned the new H1-B visa rule announced by Donald Trump. He said, “on H1B, we have significantly localised our workforce in the US, approximately just about 500 associated have travelled to the US on H1B.” He also highlighted that their business model will be able to quickly adapt to any sort of changes in the immigration policy.
