TCS Adds a New Layer to Its Temp Hiring Channel; Staffing Firms Worried

Days after announcing over 12,000 job cuts, IT giant Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) has reportedly added a new layer to its contract recruitment process. The company, which hires thousands of freshers and lateral tech professionals every year, has appointed a US-based firm to manage its third-party staffing vendors.

According to a report by Mint, TCS has hired Pontoon Solutions to act as a middleman between the company and its staffing partners. Vendors will no longer interact directly with TCS’s internal hiring team, known as the Resource Management Group (RMG), which oversees contract staffing.

Instead, TCS’s hiring requirements will be posted on Pontoon’s platform, where vendors will upload candidate profiles. Pontoon will first screen these profiles, after which TCS will make the final hiring decisions. Pontoon is part of the global staffing giant Adecco.

Citing executives from staffing firms, the newspaper reported that they have been interacting exclusively with Pontoon for TCS hiring over the past two months. Vendors are no longer allowed to contact TCS employees for updates or clarifications. Previously, they submitted resumes via a TCS-managed portal — now, this process is fully handled by Pontoon.

TCS has reportedly tightened its recruitment processes in recent years, with the RMG team’s role gradually being scaled down. While this change is intended to improve transparency, not all vendors are pleased with the new system, the report stated.

Hiring through Pontoon and staffing agencies will account for about 8–10% of TCS’s total recruitment. These contract workers are typically hired for six months to a year and remain on the staffing vendors' payrolls.

TCS continues to hire for full-time positions through campus placements and its internal HR team. The company also engages headhunters for C-suite roles. In the June quarter, TCS recruited 5,090 employees, bringing its total headcount to 613,069.

According to Mint, vendors may now be required to pay a 2% commission to Pontoon Solutions if their candidates pass the shortlisting stage. TCS typically operates with three pricing tiers for vendor payments. Depending on the candidate’s role, skill scarcity, and niche expertise, vendors are paid between ₹30,000 and ₹1,00,000 per successful contract placement.

During a round of meetings held a few months ago, the report claims, TCS encouraged vendors to improve their performance and hinted at possible incentives for those who meet expectations.

These changes in vendor management come as TCS reported a 0.59% decline in revenue for the June quarter, totaling $7.42 billion. The drop was largely attributed to a slowdown in the Indian market—once a key revenue driver—and subdued global demand amid economic uncertainty driven by geopolitical conflicts and trade tensions, exacerbated by U.S. President Donald Trump's policies.

Among India’s top five IT services firms, Infosys, HCLTech, Wipro, and Tech Mahindra, TCS posted the weakest performance last quarter. The company also announced plans to reduce its workforce by 12,200 employees, or approximately 2% of its headcount.