No More Middlemen: TCS Cuts Vendor Access After Laying Off 12000 Employees

After firing 12000+ employees, TCS is tightening its hiring, especially for contract ones. Contract hiring is paramount for TCS, accounting for about 8% to 10% of the total workforce. Previously, these hirings were handled by Resource Management Group (RMG). Now, TCS has onboarded Pontoon Solutions to oversee the hiring from here on.

The vendors (who usually provide the contract workers to TCS) worry about losing communication with the RMG team and TCS altogether. Why did TCS make such a drastic move right after its mass layoffs? Is it an indicator that the company is facing instability revenue-wise? Or because it couldn’t just rely on the Vendors anymore?

Pontoon Solutions is a US-based recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) company. TCS extended its hand for collaboration with Pontoon for several reasons:

TCS Cost-Cutting

TCS's quarterly (June 2025) revenue went down 0.59%, bringing in $7.42 billion. As a result, the company laid off over 12,000 employees. Amid growing tension between the US and India, TCS wants to invest less in rehiring.

More Control And Transparency In Hiring

The vendor system involved too many people, and in some way or another, weak candidates were pushed into the roles. Therefore, the gap between the candidates and project performance for TCS felt problematic.

Centralized Hiring With Pontoon Solutions

Now with Pontoon, TCS can worry less about hiring the best talent. Here’s how the new filtering process looks for TCS:

1. Job postings are done via the Pontoon platform.
2. Vendors can submit suitable resumes directly to Pontoon.
3. Pantoon then filters the best-suited candidates.
4. After a few more vetting rounds, the top performers are sent to the final rounds with TCS.

Why Vendor Communications Are Cut With TCS After Layoffs?

TCS recognized the long-term risks of hiring the wrong people through vendors. Continuing communication with vendors would repeat the cycle over and over. TCS believed it was unreasonable to invest money in areas that don’t deliver RIO. TCS's stance is clear: there is no more business for vendors who lack the right talent.

For now, these changes are limited to contract roles only (hired for 6 - 12 months), not permanent roles. There are no reforms to the TCS conventional way of hiring via campus placements, lateral hiring, and executive search firms.