Imagine a data scientist, once enthralled by the intellectual challenge of her role, now bogged down in an environment devoid of growth opportunities. Or a salesperson, initially energised by a supportive team, now feeling ostracised due to a manager’s favouritism. These scenarios highlight the push factors – internal shortcomings that can push even high-performing employees towards the exit.

One of the most significant push factors is poor leadership. As Praveer Priyadarshi, an HR leader & former CHRO, reminds of an old saying, “employees don’t leave companies, they leave managers.”

Micromanagement, favouritism, and a lack of inclusivity create toxic environments that erode morale and productivity. Ineffective communication from supervisors further compounds the issue, leaving employees feeling disengaged and undervalued.

“Employees may hesitate to voice concerns directly. It’s imperative for organisations to create safe spaces for open dialogue and actively address shortcomings.”

Chandrasekhar Mukherjee, HR leader & former CHRO

Compensation, while a key factor, isn’t a solitary motivator. Employees who perceive a widening gap between their contributions and their pay are more likely to explore new opportunities. This perception of inequity breeds resentment and ultimately, leads to a diminished sense of satisfaction. An HR leader & former CHRO, Chandrasekhar Mukherjee emphasises, “when the reality of a job doesn’t match what was promised during recruitment, motivation and satisfaction plummet.”

Recognition and career growth opportunities are equally important for employee retention. Employees yearn for appreciation of their efforts and a clear path for professional development.

“Negative talk or gossip among peers can create a toxic work environment. It undermines trust, teamwork, and morale, and can contribute to increased stress and dissatisfaction among employees,” Sujiv Nair, global CHRO, Re Sustainbility.

“Employees want to see a path for advancement based on their skills and performance. When organisations fail to provide opportunities for development and progression, employees may feel stagnant and opt to leave in search of better prospects elsewhere,” says Priyadarshi.

Investing in higher education can benefit both employees and organizations. It enhances employees’ skills and knowledge, making them more valuable assets to the company. However, as Nair puts it, “the lack of support or opportunities for higher education can lead to frustration and may cause talented employees to seek opportunities elsewhere.”

Opaque performance evaluations and a lack of well-defined career trajectories create a sense of stagnation, pushing employees elsewhere in search of opportunities to hone their skills and advance their careers.

The triple threat

Unrealistic deadlines, heavy workloads, and inadequate staffing contribute significantly to stress and burnout. Organisations that prioritise employee well-being through stress management programmes and workload adjustments can significantly reduce turnover. Furthermore, seemingly trivial factors like long commutes, especially when coupled with a late-working culture or a lack of flexible work arrangements, can become major push factors. Offering flexible work options can significantly enhance employee satisfaction and well-being.

“Employees want to see a path for advancement based on their skills and performance. When organisations fail to provide opportunities for development and progression, employees may feel stagnant and opt to leave in search of better prospects elsewhere.”

Praveer Priyadarshi, HR leader & former CHRO

As employees progress in their careers and navigate changes in their personal lives, organisational policies regarding work-life balance, benefits, and advancement opportunities take centre stage. Discrepancies between what is expected and what is offered can trigger reevaluation and potentially, lead to departures. Companies that prioritise work-life balance with generous parental leave policies, flexible work hours, and subsidised childcare can significantly impact employee retention.

Hence, “It is important to differentiate between the two (push and pull factors) because push can be controlled by the concerned reporting officer and the organisation more than the pull factor,” emphasises Nair.

“Negative talk or gossip among peers can create a toxic work environment. It undermines trust, teamwork, and morale, and can contribute to increased stress and dissatisfaction among employees.”

Sujiv Nair, global CHRO, Re Sustainbility

Open communication is crucial for managing expectations and fostering trust. Organisations must clearly communicate performance benchmarks, compensation structures, and internal processes to ensure alignment with employee expectations. Regular pulse surveys and proactive “stay interviews” can illuminate areas of dissatisfaction before they become dealbreakers.

“Employees may hesitate to voice concerns directly,” acknowledges Mukherjee. “It’s imperative for organisations to create safe spaces for open dialogue and actively address shortcomings.” Benchmarking studies ensure competitive compensation packages, while skip-level meetings offer valuable insights into employee concerns beyond the direct reports of their immediate supervisors. Analysing exit interview data alongside qualitative feedback from stay interviews provides a holistic perspective. “This data-driven approach allows companies to identify recurring themes and prioritise improvements that directly address employee push factors,” says Priyadarshi.

By deciphering push factors and implementing targeted strategies, organisations can create a work environment that fosters loyalty and reduces turnover. A culture of transparency, recognition, flexibility, and well-being empowers employees, fosters trust, and contributes to the organisation’s long-term success. In today’s competitive talent landscape, retaining top talent is no longer a nicety, it’s a strategic imperative. By addressing push factors, organisations can transform themselves into employers of choice, attracting and retaining a skilled and motivated workforce. This, in turn, strengthens the organisational ecosystem, allowing businesses to thrive in the face of an ever-changing market.

The post The untold reasons why employees silently exit appeared first on HR Katha.

This follows a decrease of 6,333 employees in the preceding quarter and a fall of almost 2,200 employees in the same quarter the previous year.

The attrition rate at TCS has now decreased to 13.3 per cent from 14.9 per cent in Q2. Furthermore, the company emphasised its commitment to hiring from college campuses and fostering organic talent growth, mentioning that it has initiated its campus-hiring process for the upcoming year. TCS had previously announced plans to onboard 40,000 freshers in FY24.

The company had previously shifted its employees from a hybrid model with three days of work-from-office. Milind Lakkad, CHRO, TCS, now hinted at a full return to office by March 2024, expressing optimism about the increasing energy levels in the offices with more employees returning. The company previously reported that 70 per cent of its workforce had returned to the office.

While calling employees to the office three days a week, the company also issued a reminder regarding the office dress code. The guidelines specify formal business attire from Monday to Thursday, including tucked-in full-sleeved shirts and business suits for men and women, respectively. Formal occasions require business formals. Fridays have a more relaxed dress code, allowing for smart casuals such as half-sleeved shirts, turtlenecks, khakis, chinos, kurtas and salwar (for women).

The post TCS headcount dips by over 5600 employees appeared first on HR Katha.

Additionally, Go First has promised to reinstate a ‘longevity bonus’ for staff members who have been with the airline for long.  The airline is trying to resume flying soon, which, it is hoped, will make way for regular salary payments, say media reports.

According to data from Ambition Box mentioned in a report, a Go First pilot typically earns Rs 5,30,000 per month. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the aviation regulator, has requested the airline to submit a comprehensive plan outlining the availability of aircraft, pilots, and other essential staff to support future operations.

In a May 24 email to all staff members, Captain Rajit Ranjan, Go First’s vice-president, flight operations, assured that the full salary for April would be paid before the airline resumes operations. He also mentioned that starting from the upcoming month, salaries would be paid in the first week of every month. Ranjan indicated that Go First is making progress towards resuming operations, citing the recent National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) order that accepted the airline’s insolvency plea, despite objections from aircraft lessors.

Go First has not operated flights since 3 May 2023, following its bankruptcy filing. It has faced legal challenges from lessors seeking to protect their aircraft. Recently, the airline announced flight cancellations until 30 May 2023.

Out of the approximately 55 aircraft in Go First’s fleet, 28 are currently grounded. This grounding has caused a financial strain on the airline, which has been operating for over 17 years, ultimately leading it to file for insolvency proceedings.

The post Go First tempts pilots; offers Rs 1 lakh extra per month to retain them appeared first on HR Katha.

Moneycontrol has reported that the Indian software multinational has sent an email to employees, informing that variable pay for the June quarter is reduced due to pressure on margins.

The mail states that the Company has been investing heavily on employee retention measures and the rise in employee cost has adversely affected the operating margins. This, in turn, has impacted the variable pay of existing employees.

Currently, the attrition rate of Infosys stands at 28.4 per cent, which is amongst the highest in the information technology sector. In trying to control its attrition rate, the Company has been investing in offering salary hikes to employees and enhancing benefits too.

Infosys has added about 21,000 more employees in the first quarter of 2022, which has also increased the hiring cost of the firm.

The percentage of variable payout at Infosys will be different for every employee as per the performance in the last quarter, and the role the employee is in.

Infosys is not the first company to cut variable pay for employees. Wipro has also withheld annual variable payout for all of its C-suite members, and is offering only 70 per cent of the variable pay to freshers and those up to the team leader level (in bands A and B). Again, the reason for this move was high operational costs and lower margins. Close on the heels of Wipro’s news of variable pay cut, TCS also has reportedly delayed its variable payout for the first quarter for some of its employees.

The post Infosys cuts variable pay by 30% in Q1 appeared first on HR Katha.

Last year Amazon had designed a programme–Pivot— through which employees get a chance to appeal the decision and discuss options before being fired.

The other options were to give a chance to catch up with their goals, switch their department or simply leave the company with a severance package.

The whole purpose of the programme was to offer a fair and transparent HR appeals process. But now, it has backfired, as several employees claim that Pivot is not working as intended.

An employee has claimed that when concerns were raised regarding work, there were three options offered by the company— quit and ask for severance, keep the job and meet performance goals, or plead case in front of panellists.

The process may appear to be a fair review on the surface, but employees have reportedly described the panel as a ‘kangaroo court’. The employee was allowed to write a draft of appeal, which was presented to the panel. However, the employee claims that the ‘career ambassador’, who was ‘helping’, recommended cutting out important portions of the appeal. These career ambassadors prepare employees with regard to the panel.

The panellists attend remotely, and the lack of a personal touch and connection issues make the presentation almost farcical. The person also claimed that the option to keep the job was accompanied by unrealistic goals.

Other employees reportedly claimed that after the panel discussion, even if the goals were adjusted, there was tension with the bosses.

The post Amazon’s employee-retention policy faces criticism from employees appeared first on HR Katha.

Whenever job seekers are given offers by employers, the things they are known to consider before accepting the offer are salary, location, culture and other perks and benefits. Not any more! A new trend is emerging in the Silicon Valley, where the job seekers are attracted by the free grub and snacks offered by the companies in the workplace. Organisations are increasingly mentioning free snacks as a popular perk in their offers.

A survey by food service company, ZeroCater, which offers catering services to startups in San Francisco, has found that companies are spending large amounts on snacks to attract and retain top talent. These companies are spending an average of $3–$8 per employee per day on snacks, which amounts to $78000 to $208000, annually, for a workforce of 100 people.

ZeroCater, which has clients such as Adobe, Visa, Wells Fargo and Salesforce, surveyed more than a 1000 employees at 13 different client companies.

The result showed that most of the organisations preferred items, such as La Croix Sparkling Water, Honest Teas and High Brew Coffees. Nowadays, companies are concerned about the health of the employees and are stocking fresh produce and Emergen-C to keep the employees away from sickness.

Companies are not only maintaining a supply of protein bars and low-calorie beverages, but also keeping a wide variety of edibles—Cheez-Its, Fruit by the Foot and Austin Zoo Animal Crackers.

While one may be surprised that free snacks can be a deal breaker in accepting a job offer, it has indeed had an impact on employees. Bloomberg employees boast enthusiastically about the complimentary snacks it offers to them. These arrangements help in employee engagement and increase employee productivity.

The employees surveyed were asked to their satisfaction level with their company’s free snack offerings. On a scale of 1 to 5, the average checked 1.7. This suggests that organisations need to improve their free snack offering.

When the employees surveyed were asked what is most meaningful to them, they ranked food in the top five, along with medical benefits, work flexibility and other quality work–life factors.

SurveyMonkey offers its employees two meals per day, in addition to snacks. It spends around $10–$15 per day, per employee on meals and snacks. The human resources department of the company asks employees about the dishes they enjoy and makes the menu accordingly. This promotes healthfulness and a community feeling among the employees. It gets an insight into employees’ preferences from the inventory patterns.

Employers need to improve their free snack offering, to attract and retain their employees and make them engaged and productive.

The post Free snack to attract and retain talent in Silicon Valley appeared first on HR Katha.

Infosys, the country’s second largest IT conglomerate, recently released its quarterly financial results. The report suggested a shrinking profit and an increased attrition at the same time.

To find out the inside story about its attrition levels and the reasons behind the same, HRKatha reached out to Richard Lobo, SV-P & Head HR, Infosys.

Lobo shares, “Although, the change in attrition levels is of importance to the group, the numbers are not as skewed for Infosys Ltd.”

As per the ‘Consolidated Financial Data – First Quarter, Fiscal 2017’ published on the company website, the standalone attrition rate for the quarter ending June 30 last year was 14.2 per cent, while for the quarter ending June 30 this year it is 15.8 per cent.

On the other hand, the consolidated numbers that include all the subsidiaries of the group, stand at 21 per cent for the first quarter this year as compared to 19.2 per cent last year.

Lobo explains that the consolidated figure that shows a higher growth in attrition rate, is due to the fact that the number represents all subsidiaries including its BPO arm which, in general, is seeing high attrition across the industry.

He further says, “Although the company is always cautious about its attrition rate, the group’s core business — Infosys Ltd — has only seen around one per cent of growth in attrition this quarter. This is not so unusual, as this is that time of the year when a lot of fresh graduates/hires leave to pursue higher studies.”

He revealed that the company has rolled out two major initiatives aimed at employee engagement and retention, which, in spite of being announced at the same time as the annual report, are not a reaction to the results, but have been in the pipeline for over a year now.

The first of the two initiatives is the recently announced restricted stock offerings to employees across various levels.

“The restricted employee stocks are being offered with a vesting period of four years”, Lobo stated.

“Secondly, we also have a robust ‘rewards for performance’ plan in place. We are now looking at differentiating rewards based on performance”, he adds.

The reward strategy and the stock options are both significant measures to retain talent and keep them motivated, not just for the coming quarters but for years to come.

The post Infosys’ employee retention strategy: proactive not reactionary appeared first on HR Katha.

Companies across industries are expecting to increase base salaries by 10.5 per cent across career levels, in 2016. In addition, 48 per cent of the companies, surveyed by Mercer, are expecting to increase their headcount as well. The prediction is pretty close to reality as it matches with the actual increase in 2015.

Among industries, the life sciences, IT and chemical industries are expected to give the maximum raise to its employees. The consumer, automobile and shared services’ workforce, on the other hand, may see a dip in salary projections for 2016. However, the salary differentiation between industries has narrowed down over the past year. Moreover, with a tight budget, there is considerable pressure on talent retention.

In 2015, the average actual attrition across industries was 12.6 per cent, which is higher than 2014’s attrition rate of 10.3 per cent — an increase of 2.3 percentage points. However, in the shared services sector, the figure was 17.8 per cent followed by the consumer sector at 17.6 per cent.

This indicates that companies are facing a greater talent crunch in the form of voluntary separation.

Among different functions, sales professionals are most likely to switch jobs sooner.

When it comes to expanding the workforce, companies in the hi-tech, shared services and life sciences sector are expected to take a lead.

Organisations face a challenge in finding candidates for R&D professionals and engineers, and this holds true across industries.

The survey states that the research ecosystem in India presents a significant opportunity for multinational corporations across the world, due to the intellectual capital available in the country. The high number of Indian engineers working across the globe also highlights the highly-trained manpower available at competitive costs.

The study also revealed that there is a slight increase in the share of the ‘variable pay’ part of salaries across industries. For instance, in FY 2014, the actual payout was 14.7 per cent, which was projected to increase to 15.4 per cent in the current fiscal.

The current pay increase points toward an optimistic economic outlook driving positive sentiment, with companies expecting to increase their headcount. Corporations in India are assertive of their growth plans and will continue to hire, especially engineers and computer science experts.

The Mercer survey interviewed 691 organisations from across the country and various industry sectors.

The post Mercer predicts an average salary increase of 10.5 per cent in 2016 appeared first on HR Katha.

With growing business optimism in India, business leaders are looking for quality talent to deliver rapid and sustainable growth. However, in the past year, the gap between hiring volume and budget has significantly widened. While the hiring volume has remained stagnant, the budget for recruiting solutions has dropped. This means that talent leaders have to do more with less.

In such a scenario, talent acquisition officers are relying on two routes — employee referrals and employee retention. This was revealed by LinkedIn India Recruiting Trends 2016.

When respondents from Indian companies were asked to name the most important source for quality hires made in the past 12 months, 55 per cent of them said it was through employee referrals. Around 43 per cent said Internet job boards were also important, while 42 per cent voted for social professional networks.

What is interesting is that India Inc. surpasses its global counterparts in terms of frequent usage of referral programmes for hiring. Around 65 per cent of Indian organisations use employee referrals as against the global average of 39 per cent. It is believed that Indian companies enjoy a strong relationship with employees. This helps them identify and source quality talent through their networks.

Around 41 per cent of Indian organisations believed that employee referrals were an essential and will be a long-lasting trend.

With decreasing budgets for hiring, employee retention is another aspect that is increasingly becoming important for organisations.

36 per cent of the talent leaders stated that employee retention will be a top priority over the next 12 months. However, internal hiring, which helps address employee retention, is still to become a practice. Only one quarter of the respondents were regularly recruiting internally while another 45 per cent did it off and on. More than a quarter of the respondents never even tried it while another 2 per cent were not even aware of internal hiring.

Since internal hiring is not a top priority for organisations, there is no standard approach either. While the majority of companies have a well-defined programme for career advancement, a large number of internal hiring occurs on a case-by-case basis. 13 per cent even say that internal hiring isn’t run by talent acquisition.

However, there is an urgent need for talent leaders to formalise the internal recruiting process, but recruiters should also maintain relationships with candidates post-hire and keep them in their long-term pipeline.

Employer branding has also gained priority among talent acquisition heads, and around 78 per cent of the respondents agreed that it has had a significant impact on their ability to hire great talent.

What’s interesting is that organisations are creating a unified strategy for this. This implies that HR is now marketing to enhance employer branding. Around 43 per cent of the respondents agreed that they share or contribute to employer branding with marketing.

LinkedIn interviewed 3,894 talent acquisition decision makers who work in a corporate HR department and have some authority in their company’s recruitment solutions budget. These individuals focus exclusively on recruiting, manage a recruiting team, or are HR generalists. These survey respondents are LinkedIn members who opted to participate in research studies. They were selected based on their LinkedIn profile information, and contacted via e-mail.

The post Low hiring budgets pushing recruiters towards employee referrals for quality hires appeared first on HR Katha.

Consider the life of an organisational slogger, someone who has spent the last many years focusing on working towards the achievement of his/her goals, consistently and regularly. These kinds of workers are not super stars or king makers but are regular Joes that we see every day at their desk doing what they are supposed to do and more without making it headline news!

Throughout history, employers have been challenged by the task of attracting, developing, retaining and motivating employees. From the simplest and ancient barter systems of employee compensation to the complex incentive formulas, stock options, golden handcuffs security umbrellas of today, the organisational premise has been the same: if employees create value, provide productivity and results to the enterprise, the venture helps them earn a reward.

In their simplest forms, employee compensation and benefits have involved cash or commodities – and that still holds true to a large measure even today. The employee provides a service and the employer provides cash compensation and/or a benefit of value to the employee. But one needs to look beyond this basic construct, and myths abound about what makes people work, feel rewarded and want to stay on with any employer.

Retaining is one challenge, but motivating people to deliver more is quite another. Organisations have, over the years, realized that people are motivated when the system:

• Pays for how results are achieved
• Pays for skills, behaviours and competencies that support future success
• Rewards organisational, team and individual efforts
• Uses a broad variety of reward vehicles
• Uses a long-term evolutionary approach incorporating HR systems and processes
• Makes money work for motivation, but also
• Makes something more than money work for motivation

Where organisations develop such systems, they tend to have lower quit rates, and employee retention is greater. Quite clearly, organisations today have, either explicitly or implicitly – and sometimes by default – recognised the fact that the key to the achievement of the organisational purpose is the human resource. If this resource is treated as an input resource in the overall organisational processes, there is a resource cost attached to it.

Broadly speaking, the economics of demand and supply, and theories of price elasticity, apply to human resources. But what complicates the management of human resources is that one has to superimpose complex theories of managing human behaviour to basic economic theory.

Designing and managing an effective reward system is a management exercise that involves economic and financial expertise, apart from detailed knowledge of human behaviour.

Designing and managing an effective reward system is, therefore, a management exercise that involves economic and financial expertise, apart from detailed knowledge of human behaviour. On the economic and financial side, companies have been innovating plenty in the area of monetary rewards. Thus we have individual performance-related pay, merit pay, competency-related pay, pay for contributions, bonuses and variable pay, team remuneration rewards, risk-pay, profit-sharing schemes, profit-related schemes, role awards and many more.

Organisations must reward employees because they are, in turn, looking for certain kinds of behaviour, what is today called as competencies. They need proficient individuals/teams who agree to work with a high standard of performance, loyalty (challenged by scholars but still holding true) and ground level commitment.

Individual employees, in exchange for their commitment, expect certain extrinsic rewards in the form of performance pay promotions, salary, fringe benefits, perquisites, bonuses, or stock options. But, more importantly, individuals seek intrinsic rewards such as feelings of competence, achievement, responsibility, significance, influence, personal growth, fulfilment and meaningful contribution.

Experience shows that high levels of pay do not always mean higher levels of retention. Despite financial hooks such as stock options, bonuses, sign-on bonuses, and lump-sum reward systems, organisations such as Apple, Google, Airbnb, Sun Microsystems or JP Morgan Chase also see retention as a function of non-monetary rewards.

In today’s world, compensation systems cope with the need to pay for the risk of continuing to be employable.

Reward employees whose performance is assessed and benchmarked to a competency standard. This approach communicates to the individual (or group) that his/her contribution to the organisation is highly valued. The overall message is simple – improved performance results in improved remuneration. Essentially, workers should feel that their remuneration is fair in relation to their effort, performance and contribution when compared with the remuneration and work performance of their colleagues. An improved behaviour that drives performance receives better remuneration.

This approach addresses the individual’s need for reward through growth and the organization’s need for sustained growth. It also accelerates learning through sharing/synergies. Anglo-Dutch giant Unilever retains its high performers by giving them growth and learning opportunities in a culture where people are moved from job to job and are given responsibilities early. Unilever makes training and job rotation a basic means to career and personal growth.

While the principle of rewarding high performers may well reinforce winning behaviour, it is equally important to motivate those employees who are not performing so well. Good reward systems must not, therefore, concentrate only on employees who are performing well; they must also consider the motivation of other employees so that all employees are encouraged to improve their performance.

Good reward systems must not concentrate only on employees who are performing well; they must also consider the motivation of other employees so that all employees are encouraged to improve their performance.

This means employees can be moved across businesses to ensure cross-pollination of talent and accelerated learning. There could also be transfers (hiring from within) to match best opportunities with best talent. ITC is a good example of hiring from within. Here is an organisation that would think many times before bringing in lateral management personnel directly from the market. ITC managers respect their internal culture and the way they do things far too much to compromise on outside hiring to meet headcount needs.

When reward systems are based on results and outcomes rather than mere efforts put in by individuals, employees are encouraged to concentrate on the standard of the end-product rather than the input or effort. Employees are thus not just rewarded for turning up in office early or working long hours.

Citigroup, operates on the principle that employees should be hired, trained and provided expertise through corporate and product knowledge. They are then given the freedom to meet with customers and offer them the suite of products and services that Citigroup has to offer. To Citicorp results matter. Their employees have been adequately trained and capabilities built for them to fly their aircraft, take off and land as they choose. So long as they deliver results.

By establishing a correlation between remuneration and the performance of individuals or groups, different work systems can be emphasised. Merck works on the basis of both. The company offers its employees a reward system based on several criteria – extra work above expectation, team work, new ideas, customer/cost management, achievement, job attendance.

The central feature of many systems is the assessment of performance based on the achievement of previously established plans and objectives. This management technique, therefore, encourages individuals and groups to plan their work activity and achieve predetermined objectives. The main elements of this system thus are: identification of top performers, developing career progression charts, giving employees development inputs and special assignments, mentoring them, and exposing them to multiple functions.

(The author is a managing partner & lead for North America, Talent Management Platform Solutions with TCS Canada Inc.)

The post Paying less to a known devil appeared first on HR Katha.