Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India's largest software exporter, today said it has hired 50,000 personnel in the nine-month period ended December 2010 and expects to add another 12,000-15,000 in Q4.

TCS added 20,219 people (gross) during the quarter, its highest addition yet, taking its total headcount to 1,86,914 at the end of the December quarter.

"Given the strength of business demand, we have exceeded the hiring target of 50,000 employees, we had set for this fiscal year," TCS's Vice-President, Head, Global Human Resources, Ajoy Mukherjee, told reporters here.

"We have welcomed the highest-ever number of new TCSers in a single quarter with a gross addition of 20,219 employees as we continued to support the company's strong growth and business pipeline," Mukherjee said.

However, the company faces the major challenge of attrition, TCS CEO and MD, N Chandrasekaran, said.

"Our short-term challenge is we have to continue to retain people although the attrition rate has come down in Q3 FY 11," Chandrasekaran said.

Utilisation in Q3 FY 11 remained at 83.8 per cent (excluding trainees) and 77.1 per cent (including trainees).

The attrition rate in Q3 for IT Services was 13.2 per cent and BPO 24.7 per cent while overall attrition was at 14.4 per cent. At the end of Q3, non-Indian nationals formed 6.8 per cent of the total employee base and 31 per cent were women.