TCS Q3 Attrition Rate Rises Marginally To 13.5%, Headcount Lowers By Over 11,000 Employees

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) announced its third quarter results for current fiscal (Q3FY26) and reported that its attrition rate rose marginally to 13.5% compared to 13.3% in the previous second quarter of the current fiscal. India's largest information technology (IT) services giant's headcount in the December quarter dropped by over 11,000 employees to 5,82,163 from 5,93,314 in September quarter.

TCS also informed the stock exchanges on Jan. 12, 2026, that from the first quarter of FY26, the employee headcount has fallen by 30,906 after the restructuring announcement. In July 2025, TCS had disclosed plans to slash its workforce by 2% in FY26, affecting the middle and senior management.

TCS announced plans to retrain and redeploy staff as it spreads into new markets by adopting advanced technologies and integrates artificial intelligence (AI). Around 12,200 roles were said to be removed as part of the workforce transition. "This transition is being planned with due care to ensure there is no impact on service delivery to our clients," said TCS in July 2025.

On a sequential basis, the workforce dropped by 11,151 employees to 5,82,163 in the October-December quarter from 5,93,314 employees in the preceding September quarter of FY26. The voluntary last-12 months (LTM) attrition rate rose to 13.5% compared to 13% in the year-ago period.

Commenting on the Q3 performance, Sudeep Kunnumal, Chief HR Officer, said “Our associates are at the heart of our transformation into an AIfirst enterprise. As of this quarter, there are over 217,000 associates with advanced AI skills, directly powering client success at scale.''

''We doubled our intake of fresh graduates with higher order skills, rapidly expanding our next-generation talent pool,'' added Kunnumal. During the last quarter, TCS did not mention its quarterly attrition rate and total headcount figures while reporting its quarterly earnings figures to the stock exchanges, in an unusual move. The management later revealed the employment figures during the post-earnings press conference.

TCS posted a net profit of Rs 10,657 crore in the quarter ended December 2025, which marked a slump of 11.7% as against Rs 12,075 crore in the preceding quarter. The bottom-line has fallen short of the estimate of Rs 12,868 crore, as projected by the analysts tracked by Bloomberg. The IT major's revenue, however, edged 2% higher sequentially at Rs 67,087 crore, which was in line with analysts' estimate of Rs 66,893 crore.

The software services major announced a bumper dividend of Rs 57 for the third quarter of FY26, topping D-Street expectations by a wider estimate. TCS announced an interim dividend of Rs 11 per share and a special dividend of Rs 46 per share, according to its notification to the exchanges.

The record date for determining the eligible shareholders for the dividend payout is Jan. 17, 2026 and the amount will be paid to them on Feb. 3, 2026. Despite the muted performance, the IT services exporter has topped market expectations in terms of the special dividend payout during Q3.