Software services major HCL Technologies today said it is focusing on hiring locals for its onsite locations.
The company, which hired about 14,500 people in 2014-15, has about 21.7 per cent of employees at onsite locations.
“This year, we have hired about 14,500 and one-third of these were onshore. These were primarily locals and the number of locals that we have is higher than most other companies,” HCL Technologies President and CEO Anant Gupta said.
“We have about 21.7 per cent people onsite. It is our stated goal to take it higher … to 25 per cent by the end of this fiscal (June 2016),” Gupta said.
He also said that HCL has “one of the lowest H1-B visa consumption in the industry”.
The company’s total headcount was recorded at 1,06,107 with the gross addition of 9,448 people.
HCL Technologies today posted 2.8 per cent fall in its consolidated net profit at Rs 1,783 crore for June 2015 quarter, impacted by higher selling, general and administrative (SG&A) expenses. HCL follows July-June fiscal.
Gupta said the company has hired 100 senior leaders across competencies to expand its business.
He added that the company has on-boarded about 3,000 people across locations like the US, the UK and China from various clients and most of them are locals.
“We will source the right people for the right job,” he said.
Indian technology companies have often been in news with visa-related issues.
Recently, a report had said the US government had opened an investigation against two of the biggest Indian outsourcing companies — TCS and Infosys — for possible violations of H1B visa rules.
Often used by IT firms, H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa, which allows US employers to temporarily employ foreign workers in speciality occupations.
The companies have maintained that they are compliant with the rules and cooperating with the authorities on the matter.
