The Hindu Business Line : No clarity on joining date for HCL’s campus recruits

“HCL has always lived up to its commitment; our recruitment drive for 2009 is very much on track, and hasn’t varied from any of the previous years.”

Adith Charlie

Mumbai, Feb. 4 Hundreds of campus recruits selected by HCL Technologies in their penultimate year of college (in 2007), have hardly a clue as to when they can join the Noida-based company.

There are at least 1,500 such freshers, both company employees and social networking sites indicate. The company, which said it recruits based on project needs, neither disputed the number nor did it offer any comments on the same.

The country’s fifth largest software exporter has neither given the date of joining nor a hard copy of the offer letter to the freshers, two persons selected by HCL in August 2007 told Business Line.

In response to e-mail queries, Mr Ravishankar B., Senior Vice-President, Head- Talent Management Group, HCL Technologies said: “Hiring at HCL is an activity phased out through the year and we give out the date of joining in batches. It has been business as usual for us. We follow a certain process for hiring, which is based on our business and project needs. HCL has always lived up to its commitment, and our recruitment drive for 2009 is very much on track, and hasn’t varied from any of the previous years. Also, the hard-copy of the offer letter is provided only closer to the date of joining.”

Different strategy

Like most IT firms, HCL selects engineering graduates in their penultimate year of college. However, the soft copy of the offer letter, which recruits can view at www.myhcl.in , is made available to them only after they pass out of college.

Due to lower visibility on clients’ spending budgets, IT firms are going slow on recruitments. Even those freshers with a valid offer letter are being brought on board in a staggered manner. Recently, the country’s largest software company Tata Consultancy Services said the last batch of previous year’s campus recruits (about 1,000 persons) would join the company latest by this month-end.

However, in the case of HCL, what is baffling for most students is the lack of clarity. “There have been days when I have sent about 50 mails to the official HR e-mail ID provided by HCL. The company is not responding at all,” said a recruit from Noida.

Meanwhile, these campus recruits have vented their anger against HCL in various social networking sites on the Internet. According to postings on Orkut.com, about 70-100 recruits plan to organise a peaceful protest in front of the HCL campus in Noida on February 10. As on December 31, 2008, HCL had 52,957 employees on its rolls.