IT COMPANIES BATTLE RISING ATTRITION AMID DEMAND UPTICK

It is now common knowledge that most Organisations have reported higher attrition over the last few months.

Business Standard quoted the following figures:

1. India’s second largest IT services company, Infosys’s attrition rate in July-September 2013 was highest in more than six quarters. It saw an attrition rate of 17.3% in July-September 2013, as against 15.0% a year ago, and 16.9% in April-June 2013
2. HCL Technologies saw a sharp rise in attrition rate during the quarter. The company’s attrition rate for the quarter ended September 30, 2013, was at 16.1%, as against 14.% a quarter ago
3. The country’s third largest IT exporter, Wipro also saw a jump in attrition rate at 15.4% in July-September 2013, as against 13.0% in April-June 2013.

Read the whole article here: 

http://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/it-companies-battle-rising-attrition-amid-demand-uptick-113111000468_1.html

Experts believe that the attrition rate is expected to rise in the coming months driven by a number of factors. This should not come as a surprise especially since Attrition generally tends to increase when demand picks up.

Most companies view attrition as a reflection of Employee engagement; Higher attrition meaning unhappy employees and the converse.

However, this is not entirely true; attrition could be low but doesn't necessarily mean that the employees are engaged and happy. It’s just that they are waiting for an opportune moment to leave the company and when demand picks up employees leave in hordes.

Organisations will now go back and start believing that employees are leaving because they are getting a better salary!! In one of my earlier posts I spoke about how “Salary most often is an outcome of the exit and not a reason”. Employee engagement is a continuous activity and should not be impacted by market conditions. Organisations have a moral responsibility to take care of all their employees once they are hired irrespective of how Attrition is behaving.

Employee attrition always hurts any organization.  It must be viewed independent of an organization’s ability to withstand or succumb to attrition pressures as a reflected in key health indicators of business and momentum of the industry

Attrition will pick up when the demand increases but that doesn't mean that companies who engage well with their employees go through the same challenges. At the end of it, it is about how the employee is taken care of.

It is equally important to identify the root causes of attrition and not believe that they are because of Salary & better prospects. Action based on data will always produce better results that actions based on Gut feel or Hearsay .

WHY GOOD EMPLOYEES LEAVE ?

I saw this on one of my friend's Facebook wall. I cant agree more apart from it being called a 'surprising finding'.

The challenge is that employees don't say this at the time of their internal exit interviews as most of them don't want to burn bridges and hence Organisations never really know the right reason. 

Time to look beyond the current methods ?

Nobody wants to be a bad Manager

Its been busy on the personal & professional front like it always 'appears' to be , in most of our cases :-)

HR teams are busier these days , most of them trying to ensure that the Managers complete the 'task' of sending out the Annual appraisal scores of all the team members .
Don't you wonder why this gets done only with several reminders , and in the very last minute or even after the deadline. Why do Managers find it tough to complete this process and why don't they enjoy it . I mean shouldn't it be an exciting thing to do. An opportunity to mentor, groom, advice and lend a shoulder for all the team members who need support in some form or the other .

The problem is that the whole appraisal discussion is perceived as a pain as Managers don't want to give bad news, don't want to take ownership of the salary hike the employees would get and just don't want to be accountable. Then why be Managers ??

Nobody wants to be a bad Manager but unfortunately in today's environment Manager's are being set up for failure as they are not provided with the required levels of coaching & development.

After reading thousands of Exit interview and Employee satisfactions survey verbatim, we have enough data that suggests that to assist Managers become better Managers there are 9 values and 3 communications skills they need to be coached on :

9 Values:
-Ownership and accountability of situations
-Fair play
-Identifying coaching and counseling needs
-Keeping promises
-Company before the team and team before the individual
-Disagree and commit
-Asking for help
-Attention to details
-Need to know

3 Techniques in Communication Skills:
-Setting expectation
-Appreciating and praising
-Reprimanding

It may not be simple but we have to start somewhere and its only logical that the best place to start is, by grooming Managers to become better Managers