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Attrition is the order of the day

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SKILLS DEVELOPMENT: Communication skills and the ability to work as a team, are essential for getting a good placement in the IT and ITeS sector.

Attrition has come to be accepted as the in-thing in most sectors now. A couple of years ago, the exodus was away from the traditional and manufacturing sectors into the IT and ITeS (IT-enabled Services) segments. But today, they seem to be the worst hit by this phenomenon. Young professionals now are much more ‘mobile’ than their predecessor generation and always in search of greener pastures.

Across sectors, the problem is not so much in recruitment as in the retention of staff. But, with lateral movement of experienced hands from one company to another, a host of other problems keep propping up for the human resource managers (HR Department). So much so, most companies have now put in place a very active HR programme to enthuse their staff and bring down the rate of attrition. HR managers say that what used to be considered a “Seven-year itch,” a generation or two ago, has come down to just two or three years. Today’s youth want to see ‘tangible progress’ in their careers within those two or three years. Else, they move to greener pastures.

Not just companies, but industry bodies such as the Confederation of Indian Industry, which place a premium on HR institution, also engage in a continuing dialogue and consultation programme within organisations and among HR professionals. Innovative HR programmes get recognised by the industry fora and even get to be replicated in other companies.

Attrition in the IT sector hovers around the low to mid teens for the top-tier players and is about or higher than 20 per cent for the mid-sized and smaller players. Cognizant’s attrition has been in the low teens for the last several years, which includes our attrition in IT and BPO combined, says Bhaskar Das, Vice-President, Human Resources, Cognizant. If one were to reckon the attrition in the BPO space, it is an altogether different ballgame. Companies in the voice-based call centre business have reported attrition well in excess of 60 per cent, while for those involved in the transaction processing space, it has been between 25 per cent and 40 per cent, he explains. “By and large, the talent market is an open market where people have a legitimate right to move across organisations. The IT industry, in particular, has witnessed tremendous growth over the last decade. The result is that the demand for good talent has exceeded the talent supply.”

“Given this, it is clear that there will be movement of talent and expertise across organisations. This may be contrary to the conventional business wisdom, but we believe that in the long-run, cross-fertilisation will be beneficial to the industry as a whole,” according to Mr. Bhaskar Das.

Says A. Balakrishnan, a HR Consultant in Bangalore, who frequents Chennai for recruitments: “We are facing acute pressure from our client companies about getting the message of retention across to our potential recruits. When we conduct two-stage interviews for recruitment into a particular company, we try to assess the ‘mobility’ of the candidates. Quite often, from their resume itself, we come to know that they do not stick around for long. We try to find out why somebody wants a shift — because there can be personal, professional, or other reasons. We brief the clients and take their views before making our final recommendations.”

Mr. Balakrishnan and his colleague were very concerned about the emergence of some bogus agencies that were now issuing fake letters to certify the ‘experience’ or ‘salary structure’ of candidates. They had recently stumbled upon a couple of such letters that claimed a particular person had served a reputed software company for four years, with a rather high cost-to-company detail. When they happened to meet a HR manager from the company that person was supposed to have served, they asked if the firm was in the habit of issuing such letters. The company did no such thing. So a complaint was lodged and a racket was unearthed, he said.

Salaries seem to be going up all the time in the market. According to a placement officer in a leading college, the start-up last year was around Rs. 3 lakh annually for an arts or science post-graduate. For the 2008 campus interviews, it should be around Rs. 3.75 lakh. It may be more for engineering graduates. The students are expecting that offer. They have also become choosy about jobs and working conditions.

According to HR managers, people leave an organisation for a variety of reasons: pay, perquisites, treatment, lack of promotional opportunities, incompatibility with the superiors or bosses, preference for relocating to a particular place, family problems, and above all the search for what they call ‘job satisfaction.’ The priorities, they feel, have changed for this generation. As a result, many of the companies have put in place a consultation process.

When the HR department or a particular head of the department feels that a certain employee is not performing to his or her level, the dialogue begins. The employee is called for a chat, asked if he or she is facing any problem, and if need be an intervention exercise is launched to sort out the issue.

Some employees go through a performance review and sometimes even counselling to resolve personal problems. When they put in their papers, exit interviews are held to understand the reasons so that others do not leave on the same grounds. This may be a continuing exercise for any HR department.

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