Hinduja Global Solutions (HGS), the BPO arm of the diversified Hinduja Group, plans to hire about 3,200 people in the second half of the ongoing fiscal across various geographies including the UK, the US, and India. 

HGS Global Chief Financial Officer Srinivas Palakodeti told stated, “We expect to hire around 3,200 people in the second half of the year...Pipeline looks encouraging. For instance, in the UK, we had won a short-term project related to COVID-19 from one of the government departments...We have now won another big order and we expect to add a significant number of people.”

He added that for this new client, the company is adding 700 staff in the UK, and these roles will be all work-from-home. The company has also seen a lot of interest in terms of digital services, it could be social care, engaging customers on any of the social media platforms.

Palakodeti added that the hiring is across almost all the geographies - the US, Canada, Jamaica, the Philippines, and India. At the end of the September 2020 quarter, the company's total headcount stood at 39,578 with 45 percent staff in India. While the Philippines accounted for 24.9 percent of the headcount, US/Jamaica accounted for 18.8 percent, Canada stood at 7.4 percent, and UK/Europe at 3.9 percent.

The hiring plans come on the back of a strong deal pipeline that the company sees across various segments. Palakodeti explained that some of the hiring is also on account of open season enrolment in the US, where open enrolment season is a period when people can enroll in a health insurance plan. This is when employees of organizations can also make changes to their elected benefit options. Companies like HGS ramp up hiring to address the spike in work related to the healthcare industry during this time. 

The hiring plans have also been bolstered by the September quarter’s financial results wherein its consolidated net profit rose 65.6 percent year-on-year to Rs 81.3 Cr in the September quarter - the highest-ever reported by the company. Revenue increased 9.4 percent to Rs 1,332.5 Cr during the quarter under review from Rs 1,217.9 Cr in July-September a year ago. The strong performance came on account of robust healthcare volumes and growth in other verticals. During the quarter, HGS also added 12 new logos across verticals for core business process management (BPM) services and eight for HRO/ Payroll processing and signed 49 opportunities for expansion of business with existing clients.