Dear HR Fraternity, Greetings!
I needed 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 recent past. Would you share any practices followed by organizations currently in similar context? Do let me know if you need any more information/clarification on this. :)
P.S. I heard one of the leading telecom service provider company has such a kind of practice in place.
Thanks in Anticipation,
Regards,
Anil
From India, Pune
I needed 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 recent past. Would you share any practices followed by organizations currently in similar context? Do let me know if you need any more information/clarification on this. :)
P.S. I heard one of the leading telecom service provider company has such a kind of practice in place.
Thanks in Anticipation,
Regards,
Anil
From India, Pune
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 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 ESS. One respondent wrote that "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 to your project managers. My observation is that project managers and management of small and medium type IT companies just assumes that they have learnt 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 neighbour many times worked well past midnight or till early morning hours. No HR for the last 4-5 years has ever bothered him to ask why he was required to work eight hours extra. In other industries, no HR worth of his/her salt would do that.
In the IT industry, not many activities start in 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 that if you want to complete some activity in time then you have to start it in 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 that do 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
+91-9900155394
From India, Bangalore
7881You can start with the Employee Satisfaction Survey (ESS). If your management has the stomach to digest the beans that ESS will throw then nothing 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 ESS. One respondent wrote that "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 to your project managers. My observation is that project managers and management of small and medium type IT companies just assumes that they have learnt 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 neighbour many times worked well past midnight or till early morning hours. No HR for the last 4-5 years has ever bothered him to ask why he was required to work eight hours extra. In other industries, no HR worth of his/her salt would do that.
In the IT industry, not many activities start in 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 that if you want to complete some activity in time then you have to start it in 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 that do 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
+91-9900155394
From India, Bangalore
Hello Anil,
Dinesh V Divekar is right.
When you ask for a 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--have seen them galore.
Another trait I observed in IT companies is the HR guys 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 had when the interlocutor/mediator is unbiased. So when employees notice this factor, the natural consequence is attrition--even if not immediately.
Rgds,
TS
From India, Hyderabad
Dinesh V Divekar is right.
When you ask for a 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--have seen them galore.
Another trait I observed in IT companies is the HR guys 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 had when the interlocutor/mediator is unbiased. So when employees notice this factor, the natural consequence is attrition--even if not immediately.
Rgds,
TS
From India, Hyderabad
Dear All,
The problem with ESS is that if it is not taken seriously by the management it creates more dissatisfaction among employees. They will losses faith in the system as they are risking there reputation and coming out and pointing a finger on the organization. As i am in HR and in development sector ( United Nations ) i experienced that a lot of people with genuine problem and brilliant ideas unable to pass the same because of the fear of unknown. Sp first of all you have to have somebody in HR team who proves to be a friendly person and also a confident person. You can't stop attrition which takes place due to hike in salary but you can only toy with the problem of employee satisfaction. A satisfied employees is the last person to look for a change. Try to create an environment where employees create their comfort zone's, if required pamper them a bit. It known truth that a comfortable person never moves.
If you have any other problem please feel free to contact me @
Regards
Kumar Sivesh
From India, New Delhi
The problem with ESS is that if it is not taken seriously by the management it creates more dissatisfaction among employees. They will losses faith in the system as they are risking there reputation and coming out and pointing a finger on the organization. As i am in HR and in development sector ( United Nations ) i experienced that a lot of people with genuine problem and brilliant ideas unable to pass the same because of the fear of unknown. Sp first of all you have to have somebody in HR team who proves to be a friendly person and also a confident person. You can't stop attrition which takes place due to hike in salary but you can only toy with the problem of employee satisfaction. A satisfied employees is the last person to look for a change. Try to create an environment where employees create their comfort zone's, if required pamper them a bit. It known truth that a comfortable person never moves.
If you have any other problem please feel free to contact me @
Regards
Kumar Sivesh
From India, New Delhi
@ Mr Divekar,
Bitter but real truth about tech co's. They talk, walk, think, love and hate in tech terms. But this fails them in dealing with the subjective / behavirol aspects of life sustaining essentials.
Good thing Mr Divekar, that you have put up the caveat at the end, else you may risk loosing your IT clients. They somehow love their techi-ness more than anything else.
Dear all tech readers,
I also do not want to take risk, spare me of your fury. I underline the caveat filed by Mr Divekar, -- -- do -- --
From India, Pune
Bitter but real truth about tech co's. They talk, walk, think, love and hate in tech terms. But this fails them in dealing with the subjective / behavirol aspects of life sustaining essentials.
Good thing Mr Divekar, that you have put up the caveat at the end, else you may risk loosing your IT clients. They somehow love their techi-ness more than anything else.
Dear all tech readers,
I also do not want to take risk, spare me of your fury. I underline the caveat filed by Mr Divekar, -- -- do -- --
From India, Pune
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