Pay, Stronger than Caffeine

I asked a couple friends and relatives on what made them choose where they are and what will tempt them to the next job, below are some of the responses, the answers were subjective as I hadn't provided any list to choose from.I have fine tuned and categorized them for convenience.  

 More facts on the demography
* Sample Size                          : 10
* Place of residence               : Overseas ( Asian Indian working either in USA/UK)
* Age range                            : 25-35 barring one, 40+
* Industry representation        : All IT barring one, Banking(Govt.)
* Job seek status                    : Passive ( none of them are actively searching )


On factors that led them to the current employer, brand, location, overseas assignment, growth potential, stability and pay drew equal response. Variety of other reasons were given by the group which you can see below  

 

Organization          ( Brand )-  

Global Reach        (Mobility)
Future                    (Career path)
Location               (Relocation ) 
Job                       (Responsibilities)
Job                       (Environment)
Work                     (Freedom)
Overseas               (American dream)
Unemployed         (Debt)
Perception            (Treatment)
Development        (Growth )
Manager               (Relationship)
Stability                 (Organization)
Pay                       (Compensation )
Commute            (Travel )
Team                    (People)


On factors that will tempt them to look at a prospective opportunity, an overwhelming majority chose Pay  followed by growth potential and newer & challenging work. Here are the other factors

Job                     (Innovation)
Job                    (New & challenging)
Development    (Growth ) 
Pay                    (Compensation )
Work/Life           (Flexible)
Stability              (Organization)
Brand                 (Organization)
Position              (Hierarchy)
Job                     (Enrichment)
Balance              (Money/stability)
Geography          (Location)

Quick Inference:
Its a no brainer -  Pay  still leads the pack   and has the ability to wake passive seekers,  followed closely by opportunity for growth and development.

"Make hay when the sun shines"

If this is the mantra techies follow in India, i think its high time for India Inc to take this up at a national level and address present and future consumers on how it will impact future business and jobs.

As companies face tougher road ahead on talent scouting, not only future clients shying away from India but even Indian companies taking refuge in countries such as Philipines, Thailand, Bangladesh ...

This Sun will not shine longer if the industry doesn't find a long term solution to Salary inflation.

Why we hate HR? Link with my comments

This article raised many eyebrows within the HR fraternity, the SHRM HR Magazine editorial featured a note on this article this month.To my utter curiosity, i read the article today, honestly I couldn't agree more. It did bring in my defenses but its a well researched and written piece on where HR is.

This article is a hard pinch on the HR community, it questions the "intellect" ability of HR pro's and raises a question on why the brightest in the campus stays away from specialising in HR and then digs on why HR is still not the management blue eyed boy.

The author was all praise for Libby Sartain, chief people officer at Yahoo.He believes leaders like Sartain are leading the HR pack by not just having a "seat at the strategic table" but by actually help build the table.

As rightly quoted , as more and more companies start to outfarm administrative and non strategic HR pieces to specialised vendors,unless we roll our sleeves and change our HR paradigm, we are at risk of facing redundancy.

Link to the article -
Why we hate HR?

Rajnish

Attrition: Is there a way to contain it?

The Indian IT companies are facing a huge task of attracting and retaining talent as the demand to fill position has skyrocketed with increased offshoring. With India still very much in the radar for offshore work, homegrown Indian firms and MNC's are setting up center to tap Indian talent pool. The fallout : employee turnover.

Major IT houses are facing a daunting task of retaining talent against MNC's entering the Indian market offering higher salaries. Companies are forced to relook and rethink their retention strategies. Question is, how do you retain your existing talent pool from becoming prey to other companies. Is there any formula or is there a way.

Differentiating the cause of attrition usually help derive at strategies which in turn will help combat attrition, however how seriously and prompty we act on it, makes us a winner or loser.

India has only 0.6% jobs from US firms - Article link

Click here to read a recent article on the % of jobs India has got from US firms.

India's Top IT companies - A rediff link

Click here to check India's Top IT Companies.

Will you hire yourself?

A good question to ask yourself is "will I hire myself" ? introspective and assist in self diagnosis and evaluation, this question is a good internal measuring tool to check how worthy we think of ourselves.

India's top 10 IT employers

A link on India's top IT employers,Interesting Read click here

Dearth of HR Talent

An intersting article with Mckinsey Online on Dearth of HR Talent
Click Here

HR trends - Link to a article

Read this post today online, By the Infosys Team of Hema Ravichandar, Somnath Baishya and Mamata Sahu,
Click here

My take: Talent engagement is the only way to survive and sustain, Organisation will need to have a talent paradigm, every individual in the organisation should have a talent mindset, its the right people that makes great organisation. HR should be the facilitator in creating a cultural shift and ensuring that the organisation imbibe this mindset.
Like the team pointed out, other factors incidental to employment such as compensation needs to be in line with expeactation yet creative to bind people and excite them to achieve more.

In all an excellent article, talks about HR's strategic contribution.

India's lagging Financial System

Read this post at Mckinsey online , Interesting insights on a comparision of two emering economies, China and India. Current state with a futuristic look at the financial health of the country. Good read and pointers. Click here

Is India Losing its competitive advantage in offshore outsourcing

Is India losing its edge in the outsourcing game? My take is No, however it shows early signs of a burnout.

India may give away couple deals to emerging markets such as China, Philippines,Russia etc, however India is way ahead in this industry and getting business out of India will be very tough.

Couple warning signs:

1) Attrition: India is currently facing one of the worst employee attrition, the high demand propelled by increased offshoring of work has taken the worst HR nightmare out of the box. No Shows, walk outs have become HR's reason for insomnia. High attrition will force companies to revise employee retention activities which will drive up employment cost in turn impacting price competitiveness which has been a major offshore calling card. Indian companies are now looking at cities such as Jaipur, Chandigarh, Calcutta,Chennai to tap local talents and to remain competitive to the clients.

2)Salary Inflation: With increased competition and multinational corporation waging a talent war, companies are looking at abnormal salary raises to employees to bind them to their companies. Money matter, that's what the new mantra is, commitment and loyalty is out of the window, Indian employees have found their new friend in waiting after a three year hiatus. Companies will have to look at yearly increases by 20 - 40% and will find it hard to provide same value add to Client without adding some of it to their project cost.

3) A weak dollar : May 2002 , a dollar fetched Rs.49, today a Dollar will get us Rs.43.5, with the trillions of deficit, the Dollar is not a favored currency at this time and may fall further which will directly impact offshore project pricing.

4) Political volatility & questionable infrastructure: India has always been viewed by the western world as unstable and volatile. Nuclear neighbors, a corrupt political and bureaucratic system, weak infrastructure ( road, electricity etc)are couple notable reasons why our own homegrown companies have disaster recovery centers at places lile Mauritius, or development facilities at Philippines and china.

5) Job burnout: The high demand industry is pushing the limits on people,no one talks of work-life anymore, extended working hours, late nights, night shifts have taken a toll on employee health and family. Result, an under productive employee - outcome a dent on quality.

Will India remain victorious, time will tell, India is the china of Software, its not only impossible but a long shot to outrun China from the manufacturing top spot, out placing India from the IT top spot is unthinkable at this time.
Stellar leaders, quality service at a fraction price, a untirin workforce,competent talent pool and consistency in successful delivery of world class services 24/7, India leads the pack by years.

People - A goldmine rarely explored

Organisation are goldmines waiting to be explored. And its your intangible asset - the people I am referring to. When was the last time were you given an opportunity to share your thoughts on the company you work.

Every individual brings in a unique perspective, majority of organisations usually takes the vast pool of human potential/talent for granted and fail to tap the power of knowledge.

One of my first management lesson came to me from a seminar presentation I attended during my final year of schooling, the presenter gave an example as an analogy, It was about a outgoing shop floor worker, who used his 2 minutes of fame during his felicitation ceremony to convey, a management lesson,he said " It was a pleasure working with XYZ all these years, this experience would have been memorable if XYZ used my brain as well which came free with the hands".

What it says is simple, explore the potential employees bring in to the table.Have you given them an opportunity to be a part of your business?

CiteHR - Check my response on CiteHR

CiteHR is a upcoming HR portal, you could check me there by following the link
CiteHR and Me

IHRC & IHRJOBS

A personal contribution to the HR fraternity, HR groups dedicated for HR interaction and sharing of jobs. Check them out at
IHRJOBS -Indian HR Jobs
IHRC - Indian HR Connection