Hyderabad-based Satyam Computers, aiming to cope with creeping recession, has announced it is to review its hiring projection for this fiscal year next month.

The software major has already brought down its hiring projection from 15,000 to between 8,000 and 10,000, in order to cope up with the turbulent times ahead.

The company may also take another look at the guaranteed component of the variable pay given to its 53,000-odd employees. Depreciation in the variable pay would mean lower take-home pay for the employees.

The remuneration package comprises a variable and a fixed component. The variable component is 10 per cent at the entry level, 20 per cent at the middle level and 30 per cent at senior management level. Half of the variable pay is a guaranteed payment. The other half is linked to three parameters, the performance of the company, the individual and the business unit.

Currently, Satyam spends 60 per cent of its revenue as wage bill accounts, and reviewing variable pay could help the company cushion the impact of global economic meltdown on its profitability.

Confirming the review plans, SV Krishnan, global head of HR for Satyam Computer Services, said, "Internally, we review our hiring projections every quarter. In the past, we did not have to cut our hiring forecasts as the tidings were good. Projections were scaled down, for the first time, in the second quarter of this fiscal." He told the Economic Times, "Given the current economic scenario, we plan to take a re-look at the hiring projections before the end of the third quarter."

Satyam is not the only company that is planning to review its variable pay. In the past its rival, TCS (Tata Consultancy Services) had also cut the variable pay of its employees to trim costs. X

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