New Delhi: Billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries' headcount grew after a gap of three years during the last fiscal, taking the total staff strength of the group beyond the 50,000 level. Besides, the energy-to-retail conglomerate expects its hiring numbers to "swell" further going ahead. RIL saw its total headcount grow by 505 employees during the fiscal ended March 31, 2012 to a total staff size of 23,166, it said in its annual report for 2011-12. Including its various subsidiaries, the total staff strength rose to over 50,000 employees for the group, which includes more than 25,000 persons in its retail business. RIL has expanded into businesses like retail and broadband among others, besides its core areas like oil and gas, and petrochemicals. In its annual report for the year ended March 31, 2012, the company further said that it was giving a considerable emphasis on leadership hiring to cater to both its current and future requirements and has recruited close to 100 persons, including about 20 per cent expatriates, in leadership roles. "To specifically work on the Business Transformation initiative, we recruited 37 bright young professionals, primarily from the consulting industry," RIL said, while adding that its campus hiring for the year included 55 management graduates, 37 chartered accountants and 340 graduate engineers from across the country. The company further said that its campus hiring numbers were "only likely to swell in the future." As per the report, RIL had a total of 23,166 employees at the end of 2011-12, up from 22,661 a year ago. Prior to this, its manpower had declined for three consecutive years by a total number of 2,826 persons between 2008-09 and 2010-11. While the company has not disclosed the comparative figures for the entire group staff strength during past few years, it stood at over 48,000 at the end of 2007-08. At that time, RIL's stand-alone employee strength was 25,487 -- probably the highest ever number for the company. In its latest annual report, RIL has pegged the total group staff strength at more than 50,000 employees. Along with the increase in number of employees, RIL also saw its staff costs rise considerably last year. RIL further said that its staff cost rose to Rs 2,862 crore in 2011-12, from Rs 2,624 crore in the previous fiscal. At consolidated level, the group's employee expenses rose to Rs 3,955 crore from Rs 3,324 crore. This included a sharp increase in salaries from Rs 2,781 crore to Rs 3,378 crore. Besides, RIL issued and allotted 13,48,763 equity shares to the eligible staff of the company and its subsidiaries during the year 2011-12 under its Employees Stock Option Scheme. These shares would be worth about Rs 100 crore at the current market price.