Hello Nikhil S. Gurjar,
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 the 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 Max extent possible.
As far as you 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 exp, don't really have an idea of their short-term/long-term goals--could be due to immaturity or 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 doesn't work-out AND focus on those whose concerns can be addressed & resolved realistically & meaningfully.
This is what I meant by "HR policies being more employee-friendly AND performance-related".
@ Dinesh Divekar--
I am not so sure that ALL attrition causes can be attributed to 'organisation's culture', though it surely is an important reason--and the most important 'culture' of any Organization being "the ability or inability to adapt to 'CHANGE'. Change of circumstances, market scenario, employee profile, competition pressure, etc.
The example you mentioned w.r.t. Infy is just this aspect--the inability to recognize, analyse & 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 & long-term stay of employees is desired, welcome & 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.
@ Rupali Tyagi--
W.r.t. you query "is fixing the attrition problem beyond the scope of the HR professional?", I am not sure how & 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 & 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 & factors for IT sector is very fast.
Hope that clarifies.
Rgds,
TS