S Anand Kumar is an angry young man. In November 2011, the 23-year-old was offered a job by HCL Technologies during campus placements, even before he earned his engineering degree. That was then. Over a year later, he is still in the dark about his joining date. The endless wait is frustrating for Anand Kumar as well as several others who passed out of engineering colleges across the country in 2012. (Around 5,000 offers were made, a number that HCL wouldn’t confirm or deny.)
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(This story appears in the 03 May, 2013 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)
\"Employee First\" - I am one of them whom HCL asked to move out without a proper reason. We were hired for a project, kept on idle for 9 months and asked us to move without a notice. Then i realized what they meant of \"Employee First\".
on Aug 27, 2013As a recent ex-HCLite, HCL Tech (Software services division for clarity) appears to have a scaling problem, Internally HCL is organized as a federation of multiple business units. Some are extremely profitable, some are so-so and some are losing money hand over fist, and all fight for turf. Sometimes, I feels the infy/CTS model of massive horizontally skilled workforce, which can be plugged in as desired, will do more to prevent the siloization and turf wars.
on Apr 20, 2013There has been a lot of strategic changes at the top level. HCL is now one of the least employee friendly companies out there. The so called attrition is not because of superior training mentioned in the article. thats just rubbish. Its mainly due to FORCED resignations demanded by HR for people who are showing reluctance to relocate. You are not even allowed a single month to search out a different project in some cases. Even the best, most skilled and higle rated resources are nowadays humiliated once they go to the bench and forced out. Its becoming more of a norm. These numbers might make the shareholder happy but that is going to be short lived. If the company continues in its current path sure shot there is going to be massive willing attrition once the market scenario improves.
on May 7, 2013A very insightful article, many times newspapers just create hype on the numbers it you people who give us the insight. Beware anyone who says employees first its an oxymoron in a capitalist world, as can be seen here.
on Apr 20, 2013HCL Tech is a \"great\" company in the same way that Shah Rukh Khan is a great actor. Let\'s admit if, face it, say it like it\'s — employees pays less salary than its peers. Let\'s hope they are \"inspired\" to be completely honest about the numbers and don\'t start fudging to keep the markets happy. I don\'t think their numbers might be as fictitious as those of Satyam but one never knows ... When companies make outlandish claims such as that they put \"employees first\" or calling the CEO by some other weird name like that Subroto Roy Sahara ... yes, adding the company\'s name to one\'s name as well, or promising, say, 40% interest on your \"investment\" per annum, .... I tend to get suspicious. At least Infosys doesn\'t try to hide the bad news. It is a different thing that the markets don\'t like the \"truth\" and would rather go for puffed up and dressed up figures. But really, India has got bigger issues ...
on Apr 19, 2013Since early 2000 many senior exces from the software division left, its reported in livemint dot com. That explains the slow down of software business. Nearly a decade back Oracle and other product companies got into trouble for the numbers, where they were using booking value instead of signed value for reporting. If HCL has not increased its head count inspite of its large deal volumes, one has to look at how the nos are being booked. It could be the asset value of the deal taken up initially. Normal investors dont know these things,if you are a seasoned investor with experience across international companies you will spot many things as these were tried elsewhere. Its worth looking into, it mayor may not be the case.
on Apr 19, 2013It is wise to gain knowledge and try elsewhere instead of wasting time waiting for the date of joining from one company. HCL\'s software services business outlook does not look promising for next few years which is obvious from the fact they have not been able to onboard even 10% of employees offered in 2011 and 2012. Put your energies in sharpening skills.
on Apr 19, 2013It is sad that Young Engineering Graduates with full of enthusiasm to start their career in IT Field are disillusioned by the delay in getting appointment orders. First of all without proper planning why IT Companies recruit through campus selections Engineering Graduates? It may be to show foreign clients that they have huge manpower so that they can get projects. There are about 13 lakh Engineering graduates coming out every year. Hitherto the only major source for employment has been IT Companies. With delay in getting orders for joining ,where they will go. I wonder is this situation prevailing only in India? Dr.A.Jagadeesh Nellore(AP),India
on Apr 19, 2013I don\'t want to defend HCL or anything, but one point I would want to elaborate is that HCL never claimed employees first was about taking care of the employees, it was always about putting the employee himself in front of the customer to generate value. This thought process never changed.
on Apr 19, 2013