How Can We Create an Effective Early Warning System to Tackle IT Attrition?

Dear HR Fraternity,

Greetings! I need your help and guidance in creating an 'Early Warning System' as one of the measures to control attrition, which has been a problem area for IT industries in the recent past. Would you please share any practices followed by organizations currently in a similar context? Please let me know if you need any more information or clarification on this. :)

P.S. I heard that one of the leading telecom service providers has such a practice in place.

Thanks in anticipation.

Regards, Anil

Dear Anil, you can start with the Employee Satisfaction Survey (ESS). If your management has the stomach to digest the beans that ESS will throw, then nothing is greater than it. Start taking corrective action on it.

One of the HR managers of an IT company once told me that their company conducted an ESS. One respondent wrote, "Please audit whether you live as per your mission and vision statement." The statement created a big impact on management.

The second thing is to start 360-degree feedback for your project managers. My observation is that project managers and management of small and medium-sized IT companies just assume that they have learned soft skills by themselves, i.e., without formal training. I found many project managers very poor in people management. They were one of the prominent causes of attrition.

The third thing I observed is that HR in IT is completely disconnected from techies. In other industries, the role of HR is from recruitment to exit. In the IT industry (at least in Bangalore), HR is with techies at recruitment and at exit.

My next-door neighbor many times worked well past midnight or till early morning hours. No HR for the last 4-5 years has ever bothered to ask him why he was required to work eight hours extra. In other industries, no HR worth his/her salt would do that.

In the IT industry, not many activities start on time. Many techies have told me that activities never start at the scheduled time in their company. The so-called highly qualified person has never understood one simple funda of life: if you want to complete some activity on time, then you have to start it on time too. Deadlines are there to complete the job, but deadlines are not there to start the job. This, in turn, causes a lot of hustle and bustle, tension, and stress.

These are some of my observations. Few may be true, few may not be true in your cases. I have written a few negative things, but that does not mean that I am a baiter of IT. I have complete respect for IT professionals as much as I have for others.

Ok...

Dinesh Divekar
[Phone Number Removed For Privacy Reasons]

Hello Anil, Dinesh V Divekar is right. When you ask for feedback—especially when you mention 'free & frank' or terms like that, you also need to be open to adverse comments. Though I haven't come across his mention of 'never starting on time', I do agree with other observations—I have seen them galore.

HR Neutrality in IT Companies

Another trait I observed in IT companies is that HR professionals most often take sides—either employee or management—when interacting with employees (a few of the postings in this forum itself relate to that aspect), instead of remaining neutral/unbiased. They fail to appreciate that the best results of any grievance mechanism can be achieved when the interlocutor/mediator is unbiased. So, when employees notice this factor, the natural consequence is attrition—even if not immediate.

Regards, TS

Dear All,

The problem with Employee Satisfaction Surveys (ESS) is that if they are not taken seriously by management, they create more dissatisfaction among employees. Employees may lose faith in the system as they risk their reputation by coming forward and pointing a finger at the organization. As I am in HR in the development sector (United Nations), I have experienced that many people with genuine problems and brilliant ideas are unable to pass them along because of the fear of the unknown.

Addressing Employee Satisfaction

First of all, you need to have someone in the HR team who proves to be a friendly and confident person. You can't stop attrition that occurs due to a salary hike, but you can address the problem of employee satisfaction. A satisfied employee is the last person to look for a change. Try to create an environment where employees can establish their comfort zones; if needed, pamper them a bit. It is a known truth that a comfortable person is less likely to move.

If you have any other problems, please feel free to contact me at [Email Removed For Privacy Reasons].

Regards,
Kumar Sivesh