Satyam to increase diversity in global workforce

Satyam Computer Services Limited is looking at increasing cultural and gender diversity in its global workforce.

While in terms of cultural diversity, the company at present has around three per cent non-Indians, and in terms of gender diversity, it has 20 per cent female workforce. Satyam is planning to up these percentages to five and 25 per cent respectively.

Addressing the media, Hari T, senior vice-president (global human resources), Satyam, said, "This year, for the first time, we will be recruiting 20-30 people from campuses in China. This apart, we have also recruited around 55 people from Malaysia. We are also looking at recruiting from Hungary."

"Besides, we also see a fundamental supply-chain problem with regard to gender diversity. To increase the percentage of our female employees to 25 from 20, we have been visiting exclusive women's colleges across the country for recruitment purposes," Hari added.

As part of its industry-academia initiative - Campulse - Satyam has also, for the first time, introduced a three-day faculty development programme. The IT major is looking at having such programmes at least once a quarter at present and may later enhance the frequency too.

Later, it also plans to extend invitation to the faculty for a two-three month sabbatical at Satyam Learning Centre. This is to ensure that the faculty could realign themselves according to industry needs.

"Due to issues like data security and customer confidentiality, we are not in a position to allow students for internships at our campus. So, for the first time, this year we are also planning to create a project repository where we will guide students with regard to the projects that they can do on their own campuses," Hari said.

The Campulse initiative also includes working on realigning the curriculum, propagating Common Admission Test for IT employability, mentoring sessions and event sponsorships.

"The piloting and testing for the Common Admission Test have been done and we expect that a year or two down the line, this test will come into play," he added.

"At present, we recruit one out of every 10 students we meet. We would like to change this ratio to 1:5. We, therefore, are looking at grooming talent so that they are ready for the industry and we, as a company, do not have to spend much time in training them," Hari said. The company's recruitment involves 60 per cent fresh and 40 per cent lateral.

"This percentage may go up to 70 in favour of fresh recruitments," he added. Satyam is spending $1 million on campus-related initiatives.