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Informist, Tuesday, Jul. 14, 2026

 

NEW DELHI – India's third-largest information technology services company, HCL Technologies Ltd., is grooming fresh talent to serve as forward deployed engineers in a timeframe of two to three years, the company's management told reporters after the announcement of the June-quarter earnings Monday. The Noida-headquartered firm hires fresh talent with specialised skills, offering them up to 3-4 times the base compensation in the category, to place them in what is internally called the "elite cadre".

 

Chief People Officer Ramachandran Sundararajan said the company's hiring for the financial year 2026-27 (Apr-Mar) will be in line with the revenue guidance. On fresh hiring, the senior executive said HCL Tech now creates a rolling quarterly plan instead of committing to an annual target. However, the aggregate hiring of freshers in FY27 would be similar to that in FY26. "Our focus, again, is going to be not so much on numbers. If I have to compromise on numbers, and if that results in increasing the percentage elite engineers that we will hire, that will be our focus," Sundararajan said, adding that the aim is that these elite engineers become part of the cohort of forward deployed engineers over the next 2-3 years.

 

HCL Tech added 1,056 freshers in the June quarter but lost 3,292 employees on a net basis for the three months sequentially. The company reported a total headcount of 223,889 as of Jun. 30, down from 227,181 as on Mar. 31. Its trailing 12-month attrition rate worsened slightly to 12.7% in the June quarter from 12.5% in the March quarter.

 

HCL Tech's revenue per employee per annum improved to $65,500 in the June quarter from $65,100 in the trailing three months. The management expects this metric to continue growing. "We hire based on demand and we continue to evolve as an AI (artificial intelligence) solutions company, which means the IP (intellectual property) components and the automation and AI infusion in all our service delivery makes it easier for us to deliver the same work with slightly lesser number of people," it said.

 

HCL Tech has guided for revenue growth of 1-4% in constant currency terms for FY27. It expects its services revenue growth to be in the range of 1.5-4.5% for the period.

 

On lateral hiring, Sundararajan said recruitment will be need-based. "Again, it will just follow the revenue projection for each quarter, what capacity we have, what's the utilisation, and what we need to build. That's the approach that we have always taken, and that will continue."

 

On forward deployed engineers, the recruitment strategy includes a mix of "build and buy". Immediate requirements may be met through opportunistic hiring, he said. "Every delivery unit will have FDEs (forward deployed engineers) built, and we are making investments for that. And we have been talking about skilling investments for the last six quarters now. So all of that will add up to how we build FDEs," Sundararajan said.

 

As opposed to conventional software engineers, forward deployed engineers combine strong technical expertise with customer-facing skills. They work alongside clients, understand their business challenges, and build complex, AI-driven solutions quickly. In the fast-evolving world of AI services, it has become one of the fastest-growing job roles worldwide. 

 

Last week, sector bellwether Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. revealed that the company had taken on board 14,000 campus graduates during the June quarter. However, on a net basis, the company's headcount addition for the quarter stood at 9,279, taking its overall tally to 593,798 as of Jun. 30. The 12-month attrition rate in IT services fell to 13.6% from 13.7% a quarter ago.

 

Another large-cap player in the sector, LTM Ltd., hired over 1,300 freshers during the June quarter. However, the company's overall employee count fell by 64 during the quarter to 87,886.  End

 

Reported by Shakshi Jain

Edited by Rajeev Pai

 

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