Mahindra Satyam places another 500 associates on the bench

Mahindra Satyam is on course to cut more flab to trim costs. After placing over 8,000 employees on the virtual pool, the company has now created a “corporate reserve” akin to a bench for over 500 associates. The move, however, sparked off speculation about possible exit of senior-level employees in the Hyderabad based outsourcing firm.

In an internal communication, the company said “associates belonging to the enterprise business competency (EBS) and those in sales, relationships, operations management, programme management, delivery integration, solution frameworks & presales will reside in the corporate reserve till allocations are made.

“With a transition to the new organisational design, some of the erstwhile units like vertical business units and horizontal competency units will cease to exist. Employees who have not been allocated any portfolio yet in the new organisation design will be placed in the unit called corporate reserve”, said T Hari Chief People’s Officer and Chief Marketing Officer of Mahindra Satyam.

According to him, there would only be a few hundred associates in the corporate reserve. “We are aware of the inconvenience that this could cause for the small set of associates, but request your understanding given the complexities of this large-scale exercise”, the communication stated.

Earlier, the company placed around 8,000 people on the virtual pool fort six months. The creation of a corporate reserve, according to analysts, is akin to placing employees on the bench. Scam tainted Satyam had around 42,000 employees on its rolls when the firm was acquired by Pune based Tech Mahindra.