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SATYAM Computer Services treats its employees
as associates of the company. This speaks a lot about its work culture.
About 13,000 associates of Satyam are involved in providing IT services
to more than 300 customers across 45 countries. In such a big organisation,
human resources (HR) practice plays a critical role, not only in
the decision-making process but also in employee welfare and development
activities. The company never wanted to be the best paymaster, but
it wants to keep its associates, customers and investors delighted.
 Satyam
broadly categorises its focus area of responsibility and accountability
into three segments; associates, customers and investors. The vision
of the company aims at delighting these segments. Earlier it used
to be satisfaction, but with the increasing competition in providing
cost-effective IT solutions, and the poaching of people, it has
become a major challenge for IT companies to retain employees. This
trend prompted software companies to design various attractive policies
and incentives to retain their staff. Satyam therefore adopted the
strategy of winning the hearts of its associates rather just confining
them to the satisfaction level. Satyam's strategy is to keep all
its associates, customers and investors happy. Though the task is
not easy, the IT major has been pioneering with its HR practices
that keep them happy.
 "Increasing
salaries is not the right method to retain associates. No company
can keep its employees in its grip infinitely, and there is no end-point
in this game. We strongly believe that money alone cannot bring
loyalty, hence our strategy is that while we maintain competitive
pay structures, our HR practices focus on emotional involvement,
on getting attached to the company. Satyam also provides stock options
to all employees even at the entry level. Moreover, performance-based
stock options and incentives are being given every year. These measures
have been successful in making our associates loyal to the organisation.
We encourage our associates to have passion…delight with entrepreneurial
skills. Our core value is entrepreneurship and every Satyamite is
a leader," A S Murty, the director and senior vice president
of HR at Satyam told IT People.
The company critically evaluates its functioning
style in executing projects in time. It aims to make the customers
and associates happy at the same time. Within the organisation,
each department also considers others as customers, and every project
leader is a business manager for his team. It has formulated an
Associate Delight Index (ADI) to measure key parameters such as
performance, job satisfaction, commitment towards the organisation,
etc., and it is linked to incentives. The higher the ADI, the more
will be the incentives. There is no cap on variable salary, and
for business leaders, there is no cap on incentives.
Recruitment process
Identifying the right candidate and retaining
him is crucial for any company to withstand global competition.
Satyam follows two recruitment methods-at entry and lateral levels.
For entry-level recruitment, it has tied up with
about 70 reputed institutions in the country. Usually this is done
at the end of the examinations of engineering courses. During the
year, off-campus interviews are conducted. Entry-level recruitment
consists of an aptitude test, group discussion and technical interview.
Satyam believes that hard factors (revenue) and soft factors (attitude)
are both critical in assessing candidates. After the recruitment
process is over, candidates are placed in different business units
for about 10-12 weeks. Each unit has a HR wing and works in a partnership
model.
For lateral recruitments, interviews are conducted
at two levels. Usually, candidates having 2+ years of experience
are considered for lateral recruitment. During 2003-04, Satyam has
recruited about 4,000 associates, with 40 percent coming from entry-level
recruitment.
Of the total headcount, 30 percent of Satyamites
are overseas at any point of time. For those Satyamites who are
about to travel abroad, an orientation programme is organised to
brief them about the country they are going to visit. As part of
this orientation, Satyamites will be briefed about the culture,
language and etiquette.
Help desk
In order to make its associates free of house-related
work such as payment of utility bills, reserving tickets for trains,
etc-without any service charge-Satyam evolved the Help Desk concept
which takes care of all house-related work at product cost only.
The objective of the Help Desk is to create an environment for associates
to concentrate totally on their projects. For those associates who
have been transferred from a different city or country, assistance
is also provided to help them find school admission for their children.
For this, Satyam has also tied up with about six schools in the
city. Help Desk Satyam has eight centres in Hyderabad alone, apart
from six in Chennai, five in Bangalore, three in Pune and one at
Bhubaneshwar. All these centres are electronically connected.
The Samanvay concept aims at involving the families
of associates in the learning process on various issues such as
health, personal finance, IT education, etc. Only the parents and
spouses of associates are allowed to participate in this scheme,
which is conducted once every two months. Satyam Learning Centre
takes care of this and coordinates the activities. It also conducts
cultural and social entertainment programmes for children of the
associates.
Every year in early January, a Satyam Utsav is
organised at all the centres where the families of associates are
involved.
Corporate social responsibility
When it comes to social responsibility, Satyam
is at the forefront creating awareness about health, education and
environment activities. Satyamites and their spouses have been actively
taking part in such initiatives of the company. Every Satyamite
contributes Rs 20 per month to the Satyam Alambana Trust, and the
company contributes an equal amount. This trust mainly focusses
on urban areas.
The Bairraju Trust is a personal foundation of
the promoters, and focusses on rural areas. It trains children below
15 years in IT with an aim at bridging the digital divide.
Other activities
Breaking from the routine is very important for
everyone, particularly those who are part of the creative think-tank
of Satyam. In order to re-energise its associates, it provides recreational
and entertainment facilities at nominal charges at the Satyam Technology
Centre spread over 128 acres. Here cultural events are organised
on every occasion for every age group. The company also lends a
hand to its associates for their financial needs.
Leveraging its brand value, Satyam has been able
to arrange finance facilities for its associates at reduced interest
rates. It has tied up with a few financial institutions, shopping
malls and retail companies for offering discounts on shopping. To
keep up the tempo and enthusiasm among associates, Satyam strongly
believes in learning and offers an opportunity for them to learn
different technologies in various countries.
Earlier it was a matter of prestige for parents
to say that their son/daughter was working in the US. Now the more
countries they travel to, the more pride for them. As part of these
initiatives, many associates working in maintenance have been shifted
to development and vice versa; associates also move from one package
to other. The best example is Murty himself. A BTech from the regional
engineering college, Warangal, and MTech (computer science) from
the Indian Institute of Sciences, Bangalore, he is now looking after
the HR department after working on hardcore technologies for about
eight years.
Every Satyamite is a leader. To make Satyamites
friendly to each other and create a no-boss environment, Satyam
follows a trendy practice of calling each other-irrespective of
designation-by the first name. The company also follows an open
door policy. Every associate can directly access the chairman and
e-mail him too. This has broken the barriers of the hierarchy system
and brought all Satyamites together. For high-calibre young professionals,
age is not a constraint for allocating major tasks to them. "We
have young professionals in their early thirties who are managing
big projects," Murty says. Telecommuting has been growing,
and saves a lot of time and stress for Satyamites. The company believes
in virtual leadership, real-time leadership and delegation of accountability.
As part of this, every head of a business unit acts as a chief executive
officer, with great freedom to run his unit successfully.
Finally, at the end of the day, everyone needs
relaxation from the day's hard work. The company organises yoga,
meditation and other personality development classes like the Art
of Living for Satyamites.
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