MindTree moves to stem staff malpractices

MindTree, a $100 million Bangalore-based software services firm, has publicly taken up initiatives to stem the practice of employees misleading employers through various means.

The move comes close on the hells of initiatives taken by companies like Wipro, which, in the recent past, announced that they are undertaking forced attrition to stem such rot in the marketplace.

According to MindTree, they had to ask around 10% of its employees, who were hired during the last fiscal, to leave when they were found to be indulging in practices ranging from fake experience certificates to fake pay slips. MindTree hired close to 800 people during 2005-06.

"What is shocking is that they were lateral hires who had the required expertise to get through our recruitment process, earning pretty well and did not have to resort to such malpractices," Subroto Bagchi, COO of MindTree, said. He added that most of the CVs coming from Andhra Pradesh are being monitored carefully owing to the fact that there are large-scale misleading applications from that geography.

MindTree and Wipro are adopting various internal practices to educate their employees to maintain integrity at the work place as well as in their daily lives. The companies are being forced to take these measures as the demand for talent in the IT industry today is at its peak, and with this demand comes the challenge of building a shared understanding on integrity.

MindTree has come out with a book - All About Integrity - for all stakeholders of MindTree including its employees and partners. The book will also be circulated to other organisations, including educational institutions, so that the issues are understood at a larger social level.

"We cannot afford to have even a small element of malpractice in the system when we are planning to go public shortly," Bagchi said.
MindTree is planning to go in for a public offer by February 2007 to raise around $80 million.