As per recent industry estimates, out of the 3,70,000 engineering students graduating every year from engineering colleges all over India, only 20% of them are employable directly in the industry. These figures predominantly refer to IT/ITES organisations.
Somehow these figures do not alarm us any more and most organisations today are structuring their sourcing strategy with such assumptions. It is interesting to therefore spend some time understanding the different approaches adopted by organisations to bridge the widening talent gap.
Employment-specific education: A majority of the talent hired in the IT/ITES industry for entry-level roles are armed with formal education degrees, but find it difficult to apply the skills in a practical work environment. In order to shorten the learning curve of new employees, organisations have designed formal learning programmes like the Initial Learning Programs (ILPs) being run by TCS. During these training programs, engineering graduates are introduced to various IT-related platforms and are provided with basic training to help them get initiated in the IT domain. Many organisations take one step backwards and have partnered with campuses to provide employment-oriented course content, company faculty and training of existing faculty members by internal experts. Some of the large scale Back-to-Campus initiatives are Satyam’s Campus Link program and TCS’ Academia Interface Program.
Redefining the talent pool: Large IT/ITES organisations are expanding the suite of services being offered to customers and are moving up on the value chain of services provided. Given this business context, hiring for specialised/ high-end skills, is an even greater challenge. In order to counter this issue, progressive organisations look at existing employees who may not have formal education in those areas as a potential talent pool. Systematic capability building and certification programs are run internally and interested employees are enrolled on these up-skilling programs while they work. These programs equip employees with fundamentals of the subject as well as practical implementation for working on higher end processes. This not only solves the demand/supply  problem for organisations, but also provides sustainable career paths to employees in the organisation. For most employees completing these programs, the move is aspirational and employees value the investment made by the organisation.
It is always important to keep sharpening and reviewing the HR practices in an organisation given the changing expectations and profile of the workforce. HR practitioners are working closely with employees to gauge issues and provide solutions that are simple yet useful to employees. We are sharing with you some interesting practices that have worked well for some organisations.
Encourage Time Away From Work: Employers are increasingly encouraging their employees to take leaves and maintain a better work life balance. As a policy, leaves are not encashed and get lapsed beyond a particular limit. On an average, firms let leave pool to 45 days beyond which they lapse. This policy change is implemented with suitable communication to all stakeholders to ensure that real reason for this change is understood by all.
Working for NGOs:
Organisations are increasingly encouraging their employees to become responsible corporate citizens. IBM in the US pays for the time its employees spend on educational initiatives to boost scientific awareness. Google famously has pledged 1% of its employee’s time for CSR initiatives. Similarly, companies in India have begun allocating resources for social causes. Some of the leading firms in India like Wipro have separate arms that focus on charitable activities.
Attrition Modeling And Attrition Management Tools:
Firms are using past data and trying to pinpoint potential candidates who may be vulnerable to attrition. These score cards use a variety of factors to assign a numerical value and then better focus their retention strategies. For example, those employees who come in a close second during appraisals and feel the assessment was not fair get more manager time than others. Organisations have built retention management tools like the early warning system which is used by people managers to evaluate the possibility of attrition and build a proactive plan of action.
Organisation Alumni Network:
Many organisations are focusing on maintaining contact with Alumni by creating various forums such as E-groups, portals, alumni conferences etc. Alumni networks help the employees during recruitment processes and for various best practices sharing purposes. Instances of re-hiring of high performing ex-employees are seen as successes of this initiative.
Kitty Scheme:
To bring recognition forums closer to the employees and to make the recognition process prompt and effective, some organisations are allocating a budget to every manager at the beginning of each month. The manager can choose to use this budget in any way he/she wants (e.g. gift vouchers, trophies, certificates, wall of fame board etc) to reward his top performers. Rewards can be given weekly, quarterly or annually.
Training Star Awards:
To ensure that employees take training programs seriously and are motivated enough, organistions are focusing at identifying top performers in a training program. In one of the organisations during training programs, the top 3 performers in each batch are awarded the Gold Star, Silver Star and Bronze Star based on their overall performance on a detailed Knowledge, Skills, Attitude Scorecard (KSA Scorecard).
International Exposure:
To handle recognition in organisations with offices in a number of countries, employees are being given an option of international mobility in case of high performance. For example, a superior rating for two consecutive years may get an employee an option of international mobility in some organisations, which includes movement to any country in which the organisation operates. |
