Rival firms plan to tap talent as Satyam workers look for jobs

New Delhi: Executives at job search firms have started receiving more calls and resumes from employees of Satyam Computer Services Ltd in the last two days even as the beleaguered firm’s top leaders on Thursday pledged to stay.

Vipul Varma, director, Focus Management Consultants Pvt. Ltd, a Mumbai-based information technology (IT) recruiter with offices in Bangalore, Chennai and Pune, says he has received around 100 resumes from Satyam employees in the last two days. In the last three-four weeks, he has received around 400 resumes. “The increase is, however, not very sharp compared to what we saw during the collapse of an investment bank recently,” he adds.

Surabhi Mathur, general manager, permanent staffing, at staffing company Teamlease Services Pvt. Ltd agrees. “Although there has been an increase in the number of calls and resumes received by us since Satyam’s disclosure of financial irregularities, employees at Satyam have not pressed the panic button yet.”

The search executives say employees are right now in a wait-and-watch mode. “One can see change in job-hunting activity after the board meeting on 10 January and announcement of financial results on 16 January,” says Varma.

A number of Satyam employees started looking out ever since Satyam started grabbing headlines for all the wrong reasons. “We have seen a rise in the number of resumes in the last three-four weeks and not necessarily in the last two days,” says E. Balaji, chief executive officer of Chennai-based recruitment firm Ma Foi Management Consultants Ltd, refusing to putting a figure to the rise in number of resumes.

According to an international monthly magazine for information technology professionals of Indian origin, SiliconIndia, 10,900 Satyam employees have posted their resumes on the top job portals in the past month. Job portals Naukri.com and Yellojobs.com refused to make any specific comments on Satyam, whose troubles started with a failed merger attempt on 16 December and climaxed with chairman B. Ramalinga Raju’s confession on Wednesday that he has been cooking the company’s books for several years.

“My recruitment team estimates approximately 3,000 resumes were uploaded on various job portals in the last three days,” says Bala Subramanian, chief executive officer, Paradigm Consulting, a Hyderabad-based IT recruitment firm.

“The reason why job portals received more resumes is because candidates generally put up resumes on job portals before sending out resumes to recruiters because it is faster and both consultants and clients can see the resume,” says Subramanian, who has been getting more calls from employees of the troubled company. “However, there is no panic situation unlike what it is made out to be.”

The search executives say some companies are definitely looking at hiring from this pool of talent because of cost advantages. “Companies can afford to hire at competitive salaries and can expect recruits to stay with them for longer than one would expect given that stability is something they would look for,” says Mathur. “A couple of Satyam’s competitors have indicated to us that tapping talent from Satyam would be a good idea.”

Recruiters say the slowdown could make it difficult for Satyam’s employees to find new jobs. “While key talent will have no problems in finding an employer, for many, jobs will be difficult to come by given the present market conditions,” says Balaji.

On Thursday, seven senior executives of Satyam, including interim CEO Ram Mynampati, gathered at the company’s headquarters in Hyderabad, and pledged not to resign from the company which has approximately 53,000 associates.

rajeshwari.s@livemint.com