LTI's net headcount set to go up this year, sees no decline in demand

Larsen & Toubro Infotech’s (LTI’s) net headcount saw a rise of about 10,500 last year and it is looking at a similar or higher hiring trend for the current financial year.

“Our net headcount addition was 10,500 in the last financial year. We are ambitious about hiring in a similar range or even more in sync with our business momentum,” said Nachiket Deshpande, chief operating officer, LTI.

Last month, Larsen & Toubro announced the merger of its two listed IT services companies — LTI and Mindtree. Till the merger comes through, LTI hopes to grow at a similar pace as last year.

LTI closed FY22 with a total headcount of 46,648 and the addition in the last financial year was more than what it had seen in the previous two years. 

Despite global headwinds, Deshpande said that the only constraint was on the supply side and not demand.  

“On the demand side, some of the transformations that our customers have started are like one-way streets. They have to go through it. So, customers are not looking to cut down on technology spend because most of their problems are also technology solutions,” he added.

He added that supply all over the world was a big challenge because a lot more talent was needed than available. “That’s why the attrition rate is very high,” said Deshpande.

To retain talent, LTI has adopted a flexible work approach or a hybrid model. 

“We have done persona mapping and whatever becomes the resultant model is the hybrid model for India. It’s not a one-size-fits-all model,” said Deshpande.
 

Post-pandemic, LTI is also looking at setting up more satellite or smaller offices rather than bigger campuses. On Friday, the company inaugurated one such centre in Kolkata, its first in the city.

Prior to the pandemic, IT services companies had decided to enter a particular city based on various factors — infrastructure, tax incentives and local support, said Deshpande.

“Then, we recruited people from all over the country to be in that facility. Post-pandemic, the focus has shifted — taking work to people and not people to work,” he said.

So, LTI asked its employees where they would like to be and in that survey, the two cities in which they showed interest were Kolkata and Coimbatore.

The newly-opened centre in Kolkata has about 340 seats and in the hybrid work model, it will support about 500-550 people.

About 200-250 have already taken transfers from various LTI locations to Kolkata.

“We have 100-odd offers (for Kolkata), which are already in the market and almost 900 existing employees have shown interest,” he said.

That means more office space, and by the end of the financial year, Kolkata will grow to about 2,000 people.

As LTI looks to expand beyond its core locations, it has opened new offices in Hyderabad, Coimbatore and Nagpur. It is actively exploring expansion opportunities in newer geographies, and in many cases, plans are at an advanced stage.