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Necessity: Good computer software programmers.
Innovation: Pay staffers to recruit friends.

Blue Star is spinning its software division into a separate company; Blue Star Infotech Limited. But who are to run the new business. Software talent is becoming increasingly difficult to find.

Extensive poaching is the only solution if you are doing mass hiring, as when starting a company.

Blue Star has now set its existing employees to rope in friends. Within Blue Star circles this mass poaching is being called the 'Employee Referral Scheme'.

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Any existing employee of the company who makes the right reference for recruitment to Blue Star Infotech Limited would be paid an incentive of Rs 10,000.

The scheme is operational until the end of December. But it has two 'buts' attached to it. One. Incentive accrued by the employee is taxable. Two. An employee referring a candidate becomes eligible to obtain the incentive only if the candidate remains in employment for a minimum of six months.

Senior Manager (Corporate Affairs) Sanjay Mallya says: "The referral scheme is still at its infancy as people have to be educated about requirements for the software professionals."

The scheme is open to all employees except for those in the human resources department in the international software division and those directly responsible for recruitment.

The selection of the candidate is to be based on recruitment norms. And the decision of the human resources department would be final.

Mallya claims "This scheme has been introduced because the company would like to tap good software professionals with the help of our employees all over India to augment the existing workforce."

The response to the scheme has been overwhelming. The personnel department has been flooded with referrals.

Although recommendations have started coming in, the division's specific requirements have not yet been fully met and the applications still have to tally with requirements.

Of a target employee strength of 380, the company has so far 280 on the rolls.

An extraordinary general meeting has been called on November 13. This is to seek the shareholders' approval to spin off the software division into a separate company.

The employees of Blue Star engaged in the business of the international software division, if willing, will be transferred to the new company without any break or interruption in their services as on the effective date.

The international software division of Blue Star provides onsite and offshore software services for a wide range of applications.

It has three offices, at Bombay and Bangalore in India and at San Jose in California, United States.

- Compiled from the Indian media

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