A slice of the action

Satyam Computer Services Ltd. received the National HRD Award for `Outstanding HR Practices' for the year 2000. The reasons behind this triumph are plenty, but the philosophy that stands out is its belief that the knowledgeable, well-informed and well-trained "associates" are its cutting edge.

"EVERY LINE manager is an HR manager at Satyam", says Hari Thalapalli, Assistant Vice-President, Human Resources. " We are proud to admit that ours is one of the companies, which has a HR man in the steering committee". A fact that reiterates Human Resources is a strategic business partner at Satyam.

People, for Satyam, are more than employees or workforce; they are associates and leverage to deliver business results. The 8,000 strong multi-site company relentlessly strives to be a pioneer in HR practices. The fruits of this hard and incessant pursuit bore fruit when Satyam bagged the prestigious and much coveted National HRD Award for "Outstanding Contributions to HRD".

It is not a single factor that contributed to this HR success story. It is the company's holistic approach, the HR initiatives taken and successfully implemented and innovative measures that fetched it the award. "It's the whole flavour in the right combination", according to Mr. Hari.

The company's philosophy is, "Who is that I focus on? People!" Employee turnover is looked at critically and the focus is on identifying who will leave and why. Towards this end, the management believes in inculcating "ownership behaviour" amongst its associates. This desired behaviour, they believe, comes from communication, entrepreneurial empowerment and Employee Stock Options (ESOPs). (Incidentally, 65% of Satyam associates have received ESOPs, so far).

Satyam's interest in HR is witnessed in its Strategic Initiative Team. The team is the think tank of the HR department. It collects data about various people-related aspects within and outside the organisation and comes up with strategic interventions. For instance, it has recently concluded compiling data on `Organisation Climate Survey', which is aimed at finding what makes an `engaged associate' passionate about work. There are associates who mull over problems and come up with solutions. However, they do not "fix" the problem. On the other hand, there are 'passionate' associates who go ahead and actually solve the problem. Satyam is interested in knowing the inner workings of such associates and devise programmes to enhance such desired behaviour.

Satyam has a dedicated `Learning Centre' with 60 trainers catering to the various needs of the associates. The needs are addressed with a two-prong approach - training programmes which concentrate on organisational requirements and those, which attend to the inherent knowledge quest among associates.

The quick and the dead

This is how the training programmes address the organisational needs today. In the changing global economies, it is essential that organisations adapt to change equitably and quickly. Satyam pumped millions of dollars into these programmes, which attend to three different kinds of requirements.

* Need-based training aimed at improving job-related computer skills.

* Individual learning packages to enhance soft skills such as personal competency, leadership, decision-making, so on and so forth.

* Organisational learning initiative meant to align the organisation with the market.

Towards this end Satyam organised COGO - Customer Oriented Global Organisation, a mammoth training programme with as many as 3000 associates which was a colossal success.

Learn like crazy

This Knowledge Enhancement (KE) programme encourages associates to pursue knowledge on their own through different methods. Additional educational qualifications, such as MBA and MS through distant education is, by far the most popular. Associates are granted about Rs. 20,000 per annum, if they opt for such programme. Then there are industrial standards certification courses, offered by the Project Management Institute, U.K. Here too the associates are reimbursed by $ 1000. Recently, Satyam came up with an innovative KE programme called, `Sabbaticals'. As per this the company will to let go off an associate with 1/3rd of his annual salary to pursue research or teach or learn for one whole year. Provided he completes five years of employment with Satyam and is not "profitably employed" during the period.

The primary HR function at Satyam is to cater to the needs of their customers. This, apart from catering to its multiple internal customers. Thus, it is vital that human resources inspire synergy between the organisation and its associates. Simply stated, HR at Satyam gives the organisation what it needs and expects from its people, and vice versa.

NAYANA GAUTAM

nayana.hyd@careercommunity.co.in