HCL Technologies Limited Asia

Getting Hired

Tips from the inside

A full recruiting calendar

HCL has a very active campus recruiting program throughout India and abroad. Some of the universities, colleges and technical institutes where the firm participates in recruiting in India include the Delhi College of Engineering, NIT Calicut, Anna University, PSG College of Technology, JIIT University and ITM Gurgaon. A massive list of more than 70 of the engineering and graduate schools HCL recruits from in India is available on the careers section of the firm's site. Current openings are also listed; candidates are invited to register online, create a profile and search for jobs.

As part of its expansion plans in Australia and New Zealand, the firm is also reportedly recruiting business, finance and MBA graduates in Australasia. Grads are trained in Noida before returning to Australasia for work.

Employee first, customer second

When Vineet Nayar took the reins at HCL Technologies in 2005, the firm faced significantly higher attrition rates than its peers. Top management put their heads together and created a "talent transformation" initiative to dramatically overhaul the firm's HR strategy.

HCL realized that in service industry, the value is created not in the back office but in face-to-face interaction between the customer and employees. As such, it inverted the organizational pyramid, putting the emphasis on the employees, or the individuals with the potential to create value. This "employee first, customer second" philosophy now stands at the core of the firm's efforts to provide its employees with a work environment and culture that they take pride in. Two years after its inception, the employee first principle was declared a success, with attrition down and productivity up. With the changes, the firm's compensation structure is completely fixed—employee rewards are not linked to any variable pay. In addition, HR has scaled up its efforts to uphold employee first and its objectives. Support departments, such as HR and admin, have service agreements that specify the minimum quality of service standards.