Mumbai, Jan 9 (IANS): IT services major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) on Thursday reported a drop in its employee headcount by 5,370 in the third quarter this fiscal (Q3 FY25), which is a reversal after two consecutive quarters of headcount growth.

The Tata Group company's headcount had increased by 5,726 employees in Q2 FY25.

TCS now employs 6,07,354 people, the company said as it declared third quarter results.

Chief Human Resources Officer Milind Lakkad said that the company promoted over 25,000 associates this quarter, which brought the total promotions this financial year to more than 110,000.

“We continue to invest in employee upskilling and overall well-being. Our campus hiring for the year is going according to plan and preparations are afoot to onboard a higher number of campus hires next year," Lakkad added.

Meanwhile, attrition marginally rose to 13 per cent in Q3, from the previous quarter’s 12.3 per cent.

“TCS’ workforce stood at 607,354 as on December 31. The employee base is very diverse, with 35.3 per cent women and with 152 nationalities,” according to the company.

The IT major reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 12,380 crore, a 12 per cent growth compared to Rs 11,058 crore in the year-ago period. The company's revenue went up 5.6 per cent to Rs 63,973 crore in Q3 FY25.

According to Samir Seksaria, Chief Financial Officer, in a quarter that saw significant cross-currency volatility, TCS’s strong execution, cost management and deft currency risk management helped deliver healthy margin improvement and free cash flows.

“Disciplined investments in talent and infrastructure should lend good support to long-term business growth,” he noted.

The company said its continuing investments in upskilling, AI/Gen AI innovations and partnerships sets it up to capture the promising opportunities ahead.