Mahindra Satyam seems to have tightened their recruitment drive ahead of the proposed merger. It said it would go for only need-based hiring next year, besides the 1,500 college graduates it planned to pick for the next financial year.

The merger is now facing a couple of petitions in the Andhra Pradesh High Court including the one by the company for statutory permission for the nod.

While Tech Mahindra has not indicated any number, Mahindra Satyam has said it would pick 1,500 candidates from engineering colleges for 2013-14.

“We have no plans to hire in a big way from campuses. We, however, are looking at taking about 1,500 freshers for the next financial year. If need be, we will go for an off-campus drive towards the end of the financial year,” a company executive told Business Line .

At the end of September quarter 2012, the company has a total of 36,787 employees, against 32,092 in the comparable period previous year. It hired 600 freshers in the second quarter and indicated that it would induct as many freshers in the third quarter too.

The company, whose attrition rates were ruling at about 25 per cent in the crisis years of 2009-10 and 2010-11, could bring down the number to 13 per cent by the end of the second quarter. Satyam rolls then had over 52,000 employees.

Hari Thallapalli, Chief People’s Officer and Chief Marketing Officer of Mahindra Satyam, recently told analysts that the company was in the process of expanding the bottom of the employee pyramid.

“We are currently at about 32 per cent of people with up to three years experience. It has not moved significantly from the previous quarter. But definitely it is a reasonably good movement from where we were last year (27 per cent) in the same time,” he said.

Vasanth Krishnan, the Chief Financial Officer, added that there was still scope to push this lever to improve the operating margins.

The utilisation rate (the amount of time a staffer spends on billable projects) for the September quarter was 76.5 per cent, excluding trainees. The figure, if trainees included, was put at 72.3 per cent.

kurmanath.kanchi@thehindu.co.in

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