Attrition rates doing a U-turn..

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Posted by Radhika

With the advent of recession, Headlines flashed with the news of attrition rates plummeting across companies, industries, professions. It was a honeymoon period for all employers where without much effort not only were they able to retain employees but also increase productivity, treat the employees like donkeys (downsizing, remember?), cut costs. You could almost visualise each employer with their eyes popping the dollar sign, collars held up and the smirk on their faces. They swooned with the "Now-it's-our-time" feeling and went about crowding the engineering colleges, reputed B-schools, research students so that they return triumphant with the best pick at an "Off-season Sale Rate!"

Alas! This wasn't to last forever. The markets have already started opening up globally and the attrition rates are back on their feet. Employees have again started their exercise to seek greener pastures, negotiate the pay structures, demand for their hard-earned worth. So should companies not have taken advantage?

Its amazing that although part of the business world, companies often fall prey to the short-term syndrome when they overlook the fact that changes will occur eventually. This was a golden chance for companies who usually (due to budget constraints) do not hire such candidates adopted methods to retain such hires through employee engagement methods. But instead they chose the shorter route where they exploited candidates, continued with unprofessional processes, forced them to instill the  disorganised practices and took advantage of the situation. Companies could have used these employees to enhance the internal systems, train other members the act of professionalism and create an improvised mechanism. Thereafter even if attrition occurred, the organisation would have been able to reap the benefits of quality hiring.

However small or big the company is, strategy and planning can surely double the returns and see anyone through tough times. The recession has been able to demarcate between the strong and weak ones, irrespective of name, size and stature. Unfortunately, one's worth always remains intrinsic.