In 1968, Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata started a trading company with a capital of ₹21,000. What started as a division of Tata Sons Limited has now become India’s largest global IT service, consulting, and business solutions organization.
Every product we use today has some role of the Tata empire in it. The group is one of India’s most respected business conglomerates.
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) with over 362000 exceptional consultants serve in over 45 countries. Its Global Network Delivery Model is truly a benchmark of excellence in software development.
It has over 10,000 working employees and the revenue oscillates between $5B to $10B.
The following data has been curated from verified employee reviews from third party sources. Although a company like TCS is too big to generalize, we have tried our best to present facts that help you make an informed decision. Here we go!
Does TCS Pay Well?
Unfortunately, at TCS, the appreciation of work does not reflect on the paycheque. One of the most common reasons why employees are frustrated with TCS is the salary. This mass recruiter company with over 3,00,000 employees offers one of the lowest salary structures in the Indian IT industry.
The annual salary hike at TCS is almost negligible. The “12-14% average increment in six months” promised to employees in 2020 and is yet to be delivered. TCS employees rate the overall compensation and benefits package 3.2/5 stars due to low increments and no incentives, but the company does offer good medical benefits.
The medical insurance provides its employees with a domiciliary amount per head per year.
How Is Work/Life Balance At TCS?
According to the feedback of 4,600 employees who have worked at TCS, or are still working with TCS, 23% of people believe that TCS offers them an opportunity to balance their work as well as their personal life.
Work quality at TCS depends on projects that you are currently working on and who supervises that project. However, there is no limit or boundaries for work. If you are working with a team, you can definitely learn and grow. Projects are also tagged in a random manner.
According to some reviewers, you might be from a CS background with expertise in coding and yet you might be allotted to a support project where there is no scope of coding. You might be from core branches who hardly have any programming skills but still get tagged under a development project working on some niche technology.
Some projects have good work-life balance others do not.
During the pandemic, some employees have complained about extended hours but were still unable to complete the set target due to a small number of resources that boost profits. A definite toll on their mental and physical health.
Does TCS Offer Good Job Security?
TCS job equals job security till retirement, better than any other IT company. Company policies are more valued and supportive to employees.
Although the appraisal and promotion system is very poor, one of the best policies of TCS is the Medical Health Cover with benefits provided to the employee and his/her family (includes wife & two children) for free.
The employees can opt for the same coverage plan for their parents/dependents by paying some amount which is very less than the premium available in the market. Other facilities offered by TCS are gymnasium, cafeteria, work from home, education assistance, and soft skill training. TCS is known to value its customers.
Unlike other companies, TCS puts its employees on the “BENCH” or RMG (Resource Management Group) on full pay till the time they are re-deployed to another project. Usually, IT companies are quick to chuck off employees when they lose their contract, or the contract runs out.
Is TCS Management/ Work Culture Good?
It is truly said that your organization is only as good as your manager. According to research, more than 50% of employees at TCS believe that transparency at the management level is somewhat lacking.
Employees have previously complained about micromanagement at TCS. Often, they are not allowed to work on a project or technology of their choice. Disappointing HR policies towards promotion and appraisal, inconsistent management, and unprofessional behaviour by the RMG(Resource Management Group) have been experienced by a few.
Some also believe that managers are given too much power to tweak the rules to suit their respective business requirements.
The work culture at TCS is competitive, full of career-oriented people with a zest to learn. It is diverse as employees are from across the globe.
The culture at TCS is like any other IT company. It is purely person (supervisor/management) driven and each person in a position of authority may have a different interpretation of the company culture – hence there are multiple examples of the great work environment as well as very pitiful situations.
As mentioned earlier, a company like TCS is too big to generalize.
Is TCS Good For Freshers?
As TCS is a mass recruiter, it is a good opportunity for students fresh out of university. TCS provides employees with online courses like LinkedIn Learning and Udemy to learn and upskill themselves.
The company has a good initial learning program. 90% of the projects present at TCS are of support and it is highly likely that as a fresher you will be tagged into one. The type of work that is done at these support projects does not require any technical expertise. More than 90% of projects involve support roles only.
The annual appraisal is almost negligible but there are tons of learning opportunities for entry-level positions. This includes valuable life lessons about international business and cultural divides. Although switching projects can be difficult. All in all, a company like TCS is a good platform to get introduced to the IT world.
Is TCS Good For Career Growth?
How does one determine if a company is good for career growth? This entirely depends on the projects you get allocated during your tenure.
Career growth also depends on the employee’s skill sets. Many reviewers suggest looking for proper development projects, as these are the only projects that you can expect to learn something from. Support projects do not offer much in terms of technical learning.
The problem with TCS is that it thrives on support projects. One cannot deny that the learning graph certainly declines after reaching a specific level and the skill growth is low after a certain time.
Some employees believe that the projects the company offers are not challenging enough. TCS is a good company for those who want to start their careers or who want some stability in life.
Is TCS better than other IT companies?
The world is not black and white. Is TCS better than other IT companies? Well, it is for you to decide.
“Both the companies – TCS and Infosys – have seen leadership changes but the results show that TCS is a little bit ahead of the curve and has not seen the kind of disruptions that Infosys has seen over the last few years. TCS has been able to stay focused in terms of strategy and identify its niche with the clients,” said Sudin Apte, CEO & Research Director, Offshore Insights. The training at Infosys is a great IT company and is often compared to world-class facilities.
While ILP at TCS is good it does not match the level of Infosys.
According to a study conducted, Accenture employees had rated their compensation and benefits 0.4 stars higher than Tata Consultancy Services employees had rated theirs and the positive business outlook was 5% higher than TCS.
Infosys has one of the best E&R Divisions — The Education and Research division is considered one of the best in the industry. Comprising SMEs available for all latest technologies. They offer a wide variety of projects — There are projects available from legacy technologies to the latest technologies. TCS employees are known to complain about outdated machines and lack of innovation.
The Brand Value of TCS
In a challenging year like 2020, TCS managed to raise its brand value to $1.4 billion, the highest among IT services globally. The Chief Executive Officer of TCS, Rajesh Gopinathan was ranked fifth in the Brand Guardianship Index 2021, which lists the top 100 CEOs globally.
“There is no doubt that among its peers, TCS’s presence in terms of service lines, portfolio of customers, or geographical presence is much better,” says a senior analyst of a leading MNC brokerage house. “Along with that, it pursued growth, wherever that came from – unlike its peers who were looking for a higher-margin business. But, more importantly, what has worked for TCS is its consistent leadership.”
It is commendable how TCS has not only managed to hold its ground all these years but also race ahead of its peers on various fronts.