TCS records higher attrition rate among women than male colleagues in FY23

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) said that more women employees left the software company than men in the previous financial year (FY23), as its return-to-office policy led to “reset of domestic arrangements".

Milind Lakkad, chief human resources officer, said that employees have to come to the office for work following the Covid-19 pandemic to understand the company’s culture and for better collaboration among workers.

He stated that for FY23, attrition among women has been higher than the male colleagues. "There might be other reasons, but intuitively, I would think working from home during the pandemic reset the domestic arrangements for some women, keeping them from returning to office even after everything normalised," he said in the company’s annual report, according to a report in the Mint.

Historically, he said, the attrition rate for women at the TCS has been similar to or lower than that of men.

At TCS, the attrition rate for the last 12 months is 20.1 per cent.

According to the company, in external hiring, women comprised 38.1 per cent of the net hires in FY23. In leadership positions filled with internal candidates in FY23, women made up 23 per cent of the selected candidates, even though they accounted for only 14 per cent of the applicant pool.

Lack of childcare and caregiving duties has impacted female workers during the pandemic, but with companies returning to work from office, many have chosen to opt out of the workforce.

But the TCS stated that employees have to report to the office for work as it helps newcomers and junior management.

Pointing out the drawbacks of the work-from-home culture, Lakkad said that while tenured employees can work virtually “using the social capital built up over the years", the same can’t be with more junior employees.

“Workplace essentials such as collaboration, mentorship and team-building suffered a lot in these two years," he said.

The TCS pointed out that over half of its current workforce was hired after March 2020 when the pandemic struck. Net addition in FY23 was 22,600 and the company closed the year with 614,795 employees, according to the Mint report.

Over the last two years, TCS and IT companies such as Infosys and Wipro had to rely on lateral hiring as attrition rates shot up, which even led to internal pay disparity. The TCS said that over time, “correction through performance-linked wage increases, promotions, and voluntary attrition" will shrink the gap.

Prasadh M S, head-workforce research, Xpheno, which specialises in IT hiring, said, “Lateral offers structured with sign-on bonuses with clawbacks also help control gaps on regular payrolling with peers."

He said that companies can iron out the parity in no longer than two years.

According to the TCS, the company escaped the “vicious" hiring frenzy by recruiting over 1,50,000 campus graduates in the last two fiscals.