In a bid to attract top talent among freshers, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India’s largest IT services firm, has introduced a new cadre for fresher hiring this year as it hits campuses. Engineers hired under the new cadre, called ‘Prime’, will receive a compensation package in the range of Rs 9 to Rs 11 lakh.
Explaining the need to create this category, Girish Nandimath, global head of talent acquisition at TCS, said in a video interview: “With Prime, TCS is ensuring that we can secure the right top talent, and students hired under this category will be committed to the company. Colleges will also ensure that students who are offered jobs in this category do not participate in another company’s hiring process.”
Nandimath also explained that most colleges have ‘dream’ category offers. Generally, if a student is hired under this category, although they are out of the placement process, they can still accept an offer from another company or participate in the selection process that another company is conducting. In such a scenario, if that student has a TCS offer, they can still reject it at a later date and take another company’s offer.
The need to secure such top talent is also driven by the fast-paced technological changes shaping the sector. “We have product businesses, strategic growth businesses, and research units, and here we need top talent with strong programming and coding skills, as well as a flair for new technologies that are in the market today, such as AI/GenAI, ML,” added Nandimath.
This is not the first time that TCS has created a cadre in its fresher hiring landscape. In 2019-20, the company first introduced two categories—Ninja and Digital—which have compensation packages of Rs 3.6 lakh and Rs 7 lakh, respectively.
“We reimagined how we wanted to hire from campuses. The intent was to get access to the best talent, but also to recognise that there are students within the same campus who have better or higher aptitude and capability,” added Nandimath.
TCS has also hired a few students in the Rs 9 lakh category over the years, which many campuses referred to as Prime.
“In the Rs 9-11 lakh category, we have been hiring consistently but in small numbers. This was primarily for our Research and Innovation unit. But this is the first time that we have expanded a cadre called Prime and brought in several top-tier institutes,” said Janardhan Santhanam, VP and chief learning officer/global head, talent development, TCS.
Another reason for the company to introduce such a cadre now is that earlier, such hiring was restricted to its R&I segment or the products verticals, but it has now been expanded to all of its business units.
TCS, which had a total headcount of 606,998 as of June 30, 2024, did not provide a breakdown of the percentage of hiring under these different cadres.
“Ninja will continue to see the bulk of hiring, and Prime has just been announced, so I cannot share any numbers. But our experience with talent hired under Digital has been extremely positive. Over the last four years, our funnel of talent getting hired under Digital has grown, and we expect it to continue growing,” shared Nandimath. He added that when they started, Digital would have been less than 10 per cent of their overall hiring, but now it has surpassed that.
For FY25, TCS has stated that it intends to hire 40,000 freshers from campuses.
What is also very important when it comes to hiring under the Digital or Prime category is the readiness of a fresher in terms of getting them billable quickly. Freshers hired under these categories require less training time. Nandimath also added that their joining rate is higher, and from a productivity standpoint, they are more effective.
Santhanam also clarified that being hired under the Ninja category does not mean one cannot transition to the higher categories. “We believe that every candidate has good potential, and after training is completed, we assess whether there is potential within the Ninja cadre for candidates to move to these categories,” he added.
First Published: Aug 13 2024 | 8:55 PM IST
