NTT Data to increase workforce by 15% this year

NTT Data plans to increase workforce by 10-15%, focusing on internal growth and hiring cybersecurity professionals globally.

Japanese Information Technology major NTT Data, which has a global employee base of 1,90,000, including 40,000 in India, is planning to increase workforce by 10-15% this year, a top company executive said.

“For 2024, what we are looking at is roughly adding anywhere between 10 and 15% of our workforce to what we are today, and that I think [is a ] decent number, looking at how the industry is progressing at this stage,” Sanjeev Kumar, V-P of Global Talent Acquisition, NTT Data, said in an interview.

“This 10-15% will be a mixed batch of in-company executives taking on global roles, lateral hires, industry people coming into our fold as a result of acquisitions and campus programmes such as our Centres of Excellence,” he said, without quantifying any numbers. 

“Additionally, we are also going to be hiring 15,000 global cybersecurity professionals till 2027,” he added.

He said the company had a different approach to hiring. “What we want to do is rather than hire talent, we believe in growing our talent internally. I think that’s the best way,” he added,

Stating that the company had a robust and dedicated employee referral programme, he said, “At NTT Data , we are pretty robust in matching around 40-50% hiring through employee referral, despite the fact that our monetary incentives are not very high.”

“When you look at industry-wide, typically in our industry, anywhere between 20 and 25% of overall hiring through referral is considered to be an excellent number,” he added.