Over 17,000 employees left Mahindra Satyam in 2 yrs

IT firm Mahindra Satyam (formerly Satyam Computer Services) today said as many as 17,000 employees left the company in the last two fiscals.

"During the period under review (FY09 and FY10), the company's employees strength has changed from almost 44,000 to 27,000," Mahindra Satyam Chairman Vineet Nayyar said.

The image of Satyam Computer, rebranded as Mahindra Satyam after the acquisition by Tech Mahindra, took a severe beating after its founder chairman B Ramalinga Raju admitted to cooking up the company's accounts in January 2009.

The company added 44 new clients during the period under review.

The company today announced audited financial results for FY09 and FY10, reporting a consolidated loss of Rs 124.60 crore for year ended March 2010. The entity did not come up with its financial numbers for nearly two years, due to the scam.

Tech Mahindra took over reins of the company in April 2009 and rebranded it as Mahindra Satyam.

"For the period that we are discussing because their is so much of voluntary and involuntary attrition," Nayyar added.

The company is running a virtual pool programme for hiring the employees.

"In terms of hiring, the company is actively going to all business schools, campuses and is actively hiring through our buddy what is known as the referral programme," Nayyar added.

Nayyar further added that company wants to hire in excess of 3,000 through 'for our buddy' programme, which has been internally posted on the job portal for employees to refer their friends in the industry.

The company's campus hire is also going to be significantly higher than previous years.

During the period under review, the company has added 44 new clients, taking its customers to 500.

"One of our largest losses were in the financial services sector and now one of our major additions has been in the financial services sector," he said.

"We have got a large accounts in North America, we have a large bank in Australia. There have been additions in manufacturing, healthcare and public sector," he added.

The company had also secured an extension of contracts with existing clients such as GE and GlaxoSmithKline.

It has also worked on projects associated with the Fifa World Cup. Mahindra Satyam was the 2010 FIFA World Cup official IT services provider.