India’s sixth largest information technology services provider, Patni Computer Systems, has firmed its hiring plans for 2010. It plans to hire 1,200-1,500 employees, with almost 75 per cent of this lot being graduating students, for which the company will visit campuses towards mid-December. By September-end this year, its headcount was 13,607.
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"Over the next two quarters, we will absorb all the campus hires that could not join the company due to the staggered hiring policy we had (earlier). We had been extremely careful about intake due to the slowdown," says Rajesh Padmanabhan, Executive Vice-President and Global Head – Human Resources.
The company has 300 pending offers from the 2008 campus hires, to be absorbed by the final quarter of 2009 and the first quarter of 2010. About 900 offers were made in 2009, of which 600 are pending, and the company expects to take them all on board on the same schedule.
Padmanabhan says several personnel initiatives have been used to tackle the downturn, as well as give support for employees who wanted to hone their skills.
One was to reduce the training time. Currently, the training time for a fresher is nine to 10 weeks, but "we want to reduce this period to six to seven weeks," he added.
Efficient bench utilisation (of employees on the rolls but without project work) will be another focus. Currently, employee utilisation is 78 per cent. "Going ahead, we will also look at contractual hiring," said Padmanabhan. Patni’s current bench strength is 350-400.
Another is the setting up of a Leadership Academy. The academy went live in the third quarter of this calendar year.
It is eyeing tie-ups with foreign universities and B-Schools for content development, as well as for faculty.
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The academy will be available for employees from project managers and above. "In the second phase, we will look at the employees below this level and introduce plans that will prepare them to reach the Project Manager level faster," he said.
