While doubts linger over the future of Patni?s top management post the iGate acquisition, several key employees from the firm will be offered attractive retention packages that will also include stock options. iGate’s Phaneesh Murthy has largely followed the egalitarian approach to wealth sharing pioneered by his former employer Infosys Technologies ? a practice he is keen to extend to Patni.
iGate’s CEO told FE that he would like to see a higher degree of stability when it came to key Patni employees such as account managers, project and delivery managers. Retention packages are a tactical way of ensuring stability in the short run. The packages work either through stock options or a retention bonus that an employee gets over and above the salary he draws considering he stays with the firm for an certain period of time?between 12 to 24 months.
?I want to let Patni employees know that we value them. They are the ones that are delivering to customers,? he said. ?Stock options will potentially be there. But junior employees may not value stock options as much as the senior ones. It could be either Patni’s or iGate’s stock,? Murthy said.
Currently, more than 900 employees of iGate’s 8,000 people, or more than 10% of its employees, already have stock options. In comparison, less than 150 employees of Patni’s 16,000 people hold stock options.
?Lot of thinking has gone in as to how we can retain people at the end of the year but no planning and execution has taken place because the transaction had not been signed. We will start talking to the senior management next week in full earnest,? the CEO said, adding that iGate’s best HR practices like career planning and performance management would be rolled out to Patni employees.
Murthy indicated he may bring in new leaders to take the firm through the complex integration process. iGate would also use consultants but at the same time, will continue to work with existing teams. Analysts and industry watchers have often pointed to the cultural miss-match between the two companies?they have also highlighted that the much older Patni has multiple executives who have now become power centres within the company.
Murthy said he knows about the power centres. ?Are there small power centres because of longevity? The answer is yes, there are. My sense is that after Jeya Kumar took over as the CEO of Patni, a lot of these equations have changed. He has brought in a new set of people and that has shifted and disturbed the power centres,? he noted.
Murthy addressed iGate’s employees across the globe for the first time since the takeover deal was signed. He has been articulating that in a services company, the assets are its employees and customer contracts. ?We went through a very bad downturn in 2009 where we lost a chunk of our revenues. But we didn’t let go of a single employee,? he said.