TCS Builds Higher Bench, Increases Subcontracting Despite 2025 Bench Policy

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has increased its employee bench and subcontracting to prepare for anticipated client demand, even as it tightened its bench policy in 2025. The company is building workforce capacity while using external professionals to meet immediate project requirements.

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At the Q2 FY27 earnings call, Samir Seksaria, Chief Financial Officer of TCS, said, “As we build future capacity and navigate demand transitions, we have invested in a higher bench and increased hiring of subcontractors to meet near-term skills and delivery requirements.”

TCS Workforce Crosses 5.98 Lakh

TCS had 598,056 employees at the end of September 2026, adding 4,258 employees during the quarter. The company also onboarded 10,000 freshers during the September quarter.

Sudeep Kunnumal, Chief Human Resources Officer at TCS, said the company continued to invest in employee upskilling and hiring. Learning hours increased 17% sequentially to 17.1 million during the quarter, while attrition remained at 13.3%.

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Also Read: TCS Withholds Quarterly Variable Pay for Senior Employees

The company’s workforce approach includes hiring experienced professionals and fresh graduates, training existing employees and maintaining capacity for upcoming client projects.

Subcontracting Costs Increase

TCS’s subcontracting expenses rose to 6.8% of revenue in the September quarter, compared with 5.9% in the June quarter. The increase reflects greater spending on external professionals to meet immediate skill and delivery requirements.

Subcontracting allows IT services companies to bring in external talent for specific projects without adding all workers to their permanent workforce. Maintaining a bench, meanwhile, allows companies to deploy employees when suitable projects become available.

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In June 2025, TCS introduced a revised deployment policy that required employees to be allocated to billable work for at least 225 business days in a rolling 12-month period, effectively limiting bench time to 35 business days annually, according to media reports.

What It Means for HR

The latest development does not establish that TCS has withdrawn or relaxed its 2025 policy. The policy concerns individual employee deployment, while the current bench investment concerns overall workforce capacity.

For HR leaders, the key considerations are:

• Balancing permanent hiring with subcontracting.
• Keeping employees trained for upcoming projects.
• Managing bench costs and employee utilisation.
• Matching workforce capacity with changing client demand.

Final Remarks

TCS’s approach reflects the challenge of preparing for future demand while managing workforce costs. The company is maintaining a stricter deployment framework for employees while investing in additional capacity and external talent.

Whether this higher bench translates into improved project deployment will depend on how client demand develops in the coming quarters.