HCL Tech Q3 Attrition Rate Falls Marginally To 12.4%, Headcount Flat At 2.26 Lakh Employees

HCL Technologies Ltd. announced its third quarter results for current fiscal (Q3FY26) and reported that its attrition rate fell marginally to 12.4% compared to 12.6% in the preceding second quarter of the current fiscal. India's third-largest information technology (IT) services giant's total headcount in December quarter stood almost flat at 2.26 lakh employees.

''HCL Tech software revenue grew sharply by 28.1% QoQ and 3.1% YoY in constant currency, driven by seasonality and data Intelligence portfolio. We are well positioned to address evolving AI demand of our clients across industries and service lines,'' said C Vijayakumar CEO, Managing Director HCLTech.

The attrition rate measures the rate at which employees leave a company over a period of time. A lower rate is generally considered healthy for a company. HCL Tech said the new labour codes resulted in an estimated one time increase in provision for employee benefits of Rs 956 crore.

HCL Tech's total headcount in the third quarter of current fiscal dropped marginally by 261 employees to 2,26,379 compared to 2,26,640 in the previous quarter and 2,20,755 in the year-ago period. HCL Tech added 2,852 freshers in the December quarter. The voluntary last-12 months (LTM) attrition rate fell to 12.4% compared to 13.2% in the year-ago period.

The software services company's percentage of women employees was at 29.5% during the quarter ended December, marginally higher from 29.3% in the year-ago quarter and 28.8% in the year-ago period. During the post-earnings press conference, the management said in a post-earnings press conference that on a net basis, from a net addition of 3,489 employees in Q2, there was a slight down tick by 261 employees in Q3FY26.

The IT giant reported a consolidated bottom-line of Rs 4,076 crore in the October-December period, compared to Rs 4,235 crore in the preceding quarter, according to its exchange filing. Analysts' consensus estimate compiled by Bloomberg projected the profit to grow by 11% to Rs 4,702 crore.

Order book swelled by 17% sequentially and 43% annually to $3 billion in the third quarter. HCL Tech's revenue from operations rose 6% in Q3 to Rs 33,872 crore compared to Rs 31,942 crore in the second quarter of FY26.

HCL Tech announced an interim dividend of Rs 12 per share for the December quarter. The record date for determining eligible shareholders for the payout is Jan. 16, and the amount will be paid to them on Jan. 27, as per the company's exchange filing. This implies that the eligible investors may be availing a payout of Rs 3,256 crore, as per shareholding data.