Bangalore: The "talent war" of today is to retain the most skilled employees. It is a part of a corporate's long-term business strategy. In many sectors, the attrition rate averages 20 to 30 per cent and adds to operational costs.

This was the focus of the one-day seminar on "Retention — biggest business challenge" organised on Friday by Bangalore Chamber of Industry and Commerce (BCIC).

Study

Sudhir Kapathi, Managing Director, Omam Consultants, who undertook a survey on this subject for BCIC (to be released in a few days) said the findings brought a broader perspective to the issue, which troubled most sectors of the industry.

"Talent management has to be viewed as part of the corporate policy with enough incentives besides the pay check to retain the best and overlook the risk of losing the less talented. A transparent performance review policy has to be combined with the human factor where managers at all levels have contacts with employees as human beings," Mr. Kapathi said. "A NSSCOM survey has found that the IT/ITES sectors may need lakhs of fresh talent by 2008 or it may impact their current growth rate. The problem is acute at the middle management level with a 15 per cent shortage of experienced persons in the 35 to 45 age group," he said.

Retention

"When it comes to the retention issue, managements have to differentiate between those with and without high talents and productivity levels. They need to look out for leadership potential and those who are natural innovators," Mr. Kapathi said. Many corporates abroad had developed a "potential grid" of employees at all levels, a model that could be followed by Indian companies.

N. Ahmedali, Chairman of Human Resources and Training Committee of BCICI, said in a keynote talk that the HR scene had changed rapidly with many working in the west now ready to return home if there were opportunities.

In many sectors "poaching and job hopping" were no longer a stigma and rising salary levels (highest in the region) were taken for granted here. Campus recruitments had become another "war for talent" but the entrepreneurial ambitions of many B-school graduates had to be taken into account too, he said.

Companies were now only trying out short-term strategies like "joining bonus" or rewarding "referrals". But the problem of finding "employable graduates" remained, Mr. Ahmedali said. "Only 15 to 20 per cent graduates, technical or management, were really employable," he said.

BCIC president Venkat Kedlaya, in his welcome address, said along with the new taxes , employee retention was a major issue many managements were forced to address.

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