Preparing for a 20% Attrition Rate in India: How Can New HR Professionals Tackle This Challenge?

I read a news article stating that the predicted attrition rate for India in 2015 is 20%. I am new to the HR sector and interested in learning from your experience. How should one prepare for this?

Just because an article in a newspaper or news portal gets published, you need not get perturbed. Employee engagement is complex, but you need to work on it.

Employee Attrition Discussions

As far as employee attrition is concerned, a lot of discussions have happened on this forum. I recommend you refer to past posts. I am referring to the following two threads. I have also given my replies in the threads:

https://www.citehr.com/456368-use-th...ml#post2043550

https://www.citehr.com/433012-employ...-planning.html

Thanks,

Dinesh Divekar

You are right. However, the question is well placed in today’s scenario. I think it’s important to see the entire situation and decide how to go about it, as factors are changing rapidly in the industry.

Changing Strategies to Manage Attrition

Let me put the question to you in a different way:
1. How have the strategies to manage attrition changed over the past years?
2. Is there an effective tool to manage it today?

I think for a new professional, these things are of utmost importance. I would love to hear from you on that.

Regards,

It would have been more appropriate, and the responses more focused, if you had mentioned the sector/domain you are currently working in. I presume you have just started your career.

While the rate of attrition you mentioned is, on average, what you mentioned, please also note that it definitely won't be the same across sectors. Additionally, the reasons are usually not the same among companies, even within the same sector.

Focus on Employee-Friendly HR Policies

First and foremost, rather than worrying too much about the industry-scale attrition levels, I suggest focusing on how to make your company's HR policies more employee-friendly and performance-related.

Please bear in mind that expecting 0% attrition is foolhardy and absolutely unrealistic. All one can do is minimize it to the best extent possible. Also, note that external circumstances are not in the company's control. What's in your control are your company's practices and policies, which can make a difference in employees not being inclined to leave. It's another matter if and when your competitor poaches, and the responses would be different than a generic approach.

In short, look for ways to be proactive rather than reactive.

Self-Initiated Learning and Research

Lastly, I think being new in the HR career, a better approach for you in the larger context would have been to work on the topic you raised yourself using the internet. I am sure you would have found much more information than you could possibly digest, and then raise specific issues/queries in this forum. That would have brought you more in-depth and focused responses. In the process, you learn as well as share.

If you want ready-made answers without putting any effort yourself, through known and available sources, in the long run, it's you who would be the loser.

All the best.

Regards,
TS

I agree with you. There could be an alternative school of thought where companies are revamping their HR policies. Although I don't particularly see that happening in many companies today, I believe attrition is often the result of employee perception and has less to do with the umbrella of policies, etc. If an employee perceives that his 'short-term' goals with a company are not aligned with his 'long-term' career objectives, he is bound to leave if he finds a reasonable way of closing the gap by not continuing his employment.

Dinesh and TS, what would be your views on that? It indeed affects the way one takes things forward.

Regards,

Reasons for attrition are embedded in the organization's culture itself. To fix the challenge of attrition, one must fix the culture. Noteworthy companies like Infosys are also facing the same problem. For the last couple of quarters, their manpower attrition level has been at 20%, which is higher than the industry average of 17%.

There was a similar discussion earlier. Although my reply was not directly related to attrition, most of the reasons I mentioned can lead to manpower attrition. You can find the link below:
https://www.citehr.com/511164-hr-res...ml#post2189679

Unless senior management takes the issue of manpower attrition seriously, nothing will change.

Thanks,

Dinesh Divekar

Thank you for the insight. However, I am interested in knowing if, in your opinion, fixing the attrition problem is beyond the scope of the HR professional.

You are right when you say "attrition is often the result of employee perception and has less to do with the umbrella of policies." That's the very reason why most HR Gurus suggest taking employee inputs before formulating any HR Policy. However, in practice, [though I would surely NOT generalize this] most often it's a Top-Down approach, which is what you are referring to, rather than the Bottom-Up approach.

While none can dispute that every employee CANNOT be satisfied, a Bottom-Up approach ensures employee satisfaction to the maximum extent possible.

As far as your remark "If an employee perceives that his 'short-term' goals with a company are not aligned with his 'long-term' career objectives, he is bound to leave..." is concerned, I don't think that's in anyone's control, least of all even the employee's. Quite often, professionals, especially those with lesser experience, don't really have an idea of their short-term/long-term goals—this could be due to immaturity, peer pressure, or other reasons. In such cases, I guess it's better to put them into the basket where the cost-benefits of trying don't work out and focus on those whose concerns can be addressed and resolved realistically and meaningfully.

This is what I meant by "HR policies being more employee-friendly AND performance-related."

Organizational Culture and Attrition

I am not so sure that ALL attrition causes can be attributed to 'organization's culture,' though it surely is an important reason. The most important 'culture' of any organization is "the ability or inability to adapt to 'CHANGE'." Change of circumstances, market scenario, employee profile, competition pressure, etc.

The example you mentioned with regard to Infy is just this aspect—the inability to recognize, analyze, and respond to the changes in the areas where they have been operating thus far [and also possibly with the speed needed to stay relevant]. If one sees what Vishal Sikka has been doing in the past few months, I guess this comes out glaringly clear. And it's NOT just about money/salaries.

In Management practices, while stability and long-term stay of employees is desired, welcome, and cherished, it is also important to welcome the exit of complacent/deadwood/obsolete employees. I think it was Peter Drucker who said this, in different wording—and this lot would obviously be counted as attrition.

HR's Role in Addressing Attrition

With regards to your query "is fixing the attrition problem beyond the scope of the HR professional?", I am not sure how and why you got this query. The usage of the word 'scope' is tricky. I would rather say that it's the 'responsibility' of HR ALSO to participate in efforts to reduce attrition—ALONG with the ENTIRE Management team.

While the Technical Management team would usually be able to point out the situations from a limited perspective [his/her function/department], it's the HR that ought to be seeing the larger picture [of the Organization as well as the public perceptions—IF it's a large Company] for the consequences of any decision taken OR not taken AND alert them.

While this would be, by and large, the SOP for any Company across sectors, it's all the more important for IT Companies for the simple fact that the change perception and factors for the IT sector is very fast.

Hope that clarifies.

Regards,
TS