Attrition Rates in The Indian IT Industry

With the recent declaration of the results of the leading Indian software companies has once again brought out the issue of rising attrition rates in the Indian IT industry. While it is a known fact that this has been a perennial issue for the big companies like TCS, Infosys, Wipro & the others, I am not sure if any steps have been taken by these companies to reduce the attriton rates. The demand of higher salaries seems to be the primary cause of high attrition rate. In this scenario, its imperative on the companies to bring out employee-friendly policies which would make the employees think twice before they quit. There are a number of expectations which a would-be employee would have before joining an organisation. Some of these are salary, wok satisfaction, brand name of the company & on-site opportunities. It is a well-known fact that that Indian IT companies would not be able to match the salary levels of their multinational counterparts because of their revenue limitation & their huge employee base so it makes even more sense for the indian companies to make up in other areas like work satisfaction & on-site opportunities. There should be a strict rotation policy when it comes to on-site opportunities which when not implemented causes a lot of dissatisfaction among employees leading to exodus from the company.

The management should be open to the suggestion of an employee and not impose themselves. I am not saying that this happens in everyplace but the immediate management has a big role to play in a employee sticking to a place. As has been found out in many surveys, the number one reason for an employee to leave a company is "the immediate supervisor/manager".

If this was not enough, there is the problem of the rise of the rupee which is hitting not only the Indian software companies but all the export-based companies. I have seen recent reports that some indian companies, namely, Wipro are planning to introduce Saturday as working day in order to compensate for the loss due to the rising rupee. As correctly put by a Wiproite, "Were they asking us to work only for 4 days when the rupee was doing well?", this arrangement can potentially be hazardous both for the companies & the employees too. The one elusive luxury on every employee in the IT industry is Work-Life balance and how to achieve it and working on saturdays is certainly not going to solve this issue.

Taking a leaf out of the way Google operates would give companies an idea as to how to keep employees happy. 24-hr food facility, 80-20 working hours wherein each week, you put in 20% of your efforts on an area which interests you, employee stock options are just some of the facilities which a Googler is given. Obviously, we cannot implement each and every idea which Google implements but just goes to show the levels to which they are ready to go in order to maintain employee satisfaction. The attrition rate puzzle is one which is yet to be cracked. One hopes a solution is right around the corner.