Satyam shows door to 200 employees

By siliconindia   |   Tuesday, 11 November 2008, 16:03 IST
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Satyam shows door to 200 employees
Hyderabad: After reportedly sending off 30 of its employees for allegedly fudging bills, Satyam Computer Services, the fourth largest IT solutions and service provider, has now given pink slips to 200 employees in various centers. The move comes a few weeks after the company announced its second quarter results. At a time when economic slowdown is forcing companies to resort to retrenchment measures, Satyam insists that the move is not part of cost cutting. The move follows the annual appraisal, which usually happens in July-September, the company said. However, employees say that it actually is part of cost-cutting measures to reduce high-cost human resources. "They are saying that they are continuing to recruit people. But the thing is that they are replacing high-cost human resources with low-cost HR as part of the cost-cutting exercise," a Satyam executive, who was given pink slips recently, told Business Line. But, S.V. Krishnan, Global Head (Human Resources) of Satyam, has a counter point, "We reiterate that this is not unusual. This development follows the appraisal where the 5-10 percent of staff in the bottom of the performance pyramid is identified for Performance Improvement Plan," he says. "Those who are in that bracket know that they are in that list. While some of them exit themselves, we will sit and talk with others for their possible relocation. If they insist that they be accommodated in the local projects and continue to reject the proposals for relocation, it could be a problem," he said. However there are reasons for a former Satyam executive not to believe that nonperformance is the cause of the move as he says on the request of anonymity, "I have proved myself in several important projects and got accolades from the higher-ups too. It was a complete surprise for me to hear that non-performance was the reason for my removal." On this count, Krishnan said, "We have been recruiting in thousands this year too. In that scenario, why would we remove experienced hands? Would that sound logical?" The company, which had indicated early this fiscal that it would recruit 15,000, had scaled down the intake outlook to about 10,000 due to the slowdown.