TCS said on Monday it expects to hire 6,000 employees overseas, which is 10 per cent of the total 60,000 people it plans to recruit this fiscal.
"The overseas hiring will be similar to the 10 per cent which we have done earlier," TCS Global HR Head Ajoyendra Mukherjee, told PTI.
He, however, added that the Tata Group company is yet to firm up a detailed plan on overseas hiring and will do so soon.
The announcement comes in the wake of outsourcing and the ensuing flight of jobs to cheap labour countries like India becoming a contentious issue in the developed world.
Mukherjee said the company has not yet faced a mandatory local employee composition requirement in any of the geographies it operates in.
"As of now there is no such hard and fast rule where a percentage or a number has been given...there are talks that are going on like the 50:50 rule in the US, but no regulation yet," he said.
TCS hires people overseas based on merit depending on the job requirements, such as knowledge of the local language which is essential for certain projects in Latin America, he said, adding that non-Indians constitute 6.95 per cent of the company's total employee strength of over 198,000.
Asked if TCS was consciously keeping the number of overseas hires flat at 10 per cent because of the higher costs, he said, "You need locals for a particular job.
Whatever the costs, you have to manage
During its annual results conference held last week, the company had said it will also be hiring fresh graduates for its international operations, but declined to give a number.
TCS expects to improve on the lower-than-industry average of 14.4 per cent attrition it recorded last year, Mukherjee said, declining to disclose the targeted number.
"We will definitely bring it down this year and improve on our retention. . . .we are not happy with that number (of 14.4 per cent attrition)," he said, adding that there will be higher attrition in the first quarter and early second quarter which is 'cyclical' in nature.
The company, which has declared an annual pay hike between 12-14 per cent to its off-shore employees in India, is expecting to maintain operating margins at 28 per cent in FY 12.
TCS will be focusing on 'non-linear' streams of business like selling products and rendering cloud-based services to SMEs, which result in higher revenue per employee, to improve the efficiencies, Mukherjee said.
The company will maintain a utilisation percentage in the 82-84 per cent range, excluding trainees, in financial year 2011-12, he said.
