Saturday, November 25, 2006
Here today, gone tomorrow
25th November, 2006 – Economic Times
Bang in the middle of a massive expansion, there is one thing that can spoil India Inc’s party. No, it is not about getting business. Nor is it about funding issues or a spoilsport government.
But it is all about getting the right people on board, at the right time. In a knowledge-led economy where business ramp-up is fast and attrition is rising, that too among top performers, employee strategy is one of the most critical factors in swinging the game for India Inc.
Says T Hari, vice-president, human resources, Satyam Computer, “Our business target is constantly moving, and based on it we need to constantly update our employee needs.” Though it looks simple, most companies don’t get it right. The Hewitt Retention & Attrition Study ’06 shows that most companies are way off the mark in forecasting and budgeting for attrition.
The fast pace of the economy’s growth has made it all the more critical. Almost every sector of the economy is clocking high double digits growth. From Dell to SAP and Deloitte, companies are talking about doubling their headcount in a short span of time. All these make it critical for companies not just to plan their investments in physical assets, but also in human capital, a scarce resource today.
This is accentuated by the complexity of today’s business environment. With global outsourcing deals, India Inc’s clientele is spread far and wide and their needs and demands vary substantially. Since most of these deals are more project-based than continuous relationships, the ability to quickly ramp up and scale down the workforce is important for all businesses today. Add to this the dynamics of the fast-changing technology.
If today an IT major needs hundreds of Java experts, tomorrow it could be the turn of SAP experts. With this in mind, Satyam’s BPO subsidiary Nipuna has developed a flexible forecasting model. “This takes into account the monthly and even the weekly needs of a particular skill set,” said Naresh Jhangiani, head (HR) at Nipuna. All these mean that companies need to align their business forecasts with their employee forecasting and plan accordingly.
“A lot of effort goes towards projecting attrition... all these to ensure that our future employee requirement is ready at least a quarter in advance,” said Achuthan Nair, VP (strategic sourcing), Wipro Technologies.
This isn’t just about IT industry though. It is fast becoming critical in other sectors as well. Professionals in pharma and FMCG sectors have marketing and sales acumen, which are in demand in emerging sectors like telecom, insurance, financial services and retail as well. “Hence, qualitative forecasting is undertaken to identify sectors and companies that might be a future threat to us. This ensures better planning for skill requirement and retention,” said P Dwarkanath, director (HR) at GSK Consumer Healthcare.
Manufacturing firms are evolving qualitative forecasting models along side the quantitative model. “We extrapolate data to understand which employees are likely to leave the company within the next one year. This is done based on parameters like age, number of years in service and salary increase,” YV Verma, director (HR), LG India, said.
Certain sectors, however, have specific parameters for forecasting. A telecom firm like Bharti Airtel looks at the key productivity indicator of customers serviced per employee. For the retail sector, much of the forecasting is based on expansion of the retail space in square feet.
“Though it is quite complex, typically, a hypermarket spread over 50,000 sq ft will employ 220-odd people. However, planning skill requirement will assume more importance as it will become more difficult to control attrition as sectors grow,” said Sanjoy Jog, HR head at Pantaloon Retail India. All these may force companies to keep a buffer stock of employees for critical functions.
Bang in the middle of a massive expansion, there is one thing that can spoil India Inc’s party. No, it is not about getting business. Nor is it about funding issues or a spoilsport government.
But it is all about getting the right people on board, at the right time. In a knowledge-led economy where business ramp-up is fast and attrition is rising, that too among top performers, employee strategy is one of the most critical factors in swinging the game for India Inc.
Says T Hari, vice-president, human resources, Satyam Computer, “Our business target is constantly moving, and based on it we need to constantly update our employee needs.” Though it looks simple, most companies don’t get it right. The Hewitt Retention & Attrition Study ’06 shows that most companies are way off the mark in forecasting and budgeting for attrition.
The fast pace of the economy’s growth has made it all the more critical. Almost every sector of the economy is clocking high double digits growth. From Dell to SAP and Deloitte, companies are talking about doubling their headcount in a short span of time. All these make it critical for companies not just to plan their investments in physical assets, but also in human capital, a scarce resource today.
This is accentuated by the complexity of today’s business environment. With global outsourcing deals, India Inc’s clientele is spread far and wide and their needs and demands vary substantially. Since most of these deals are more project-based than continuous relationships, the ability to quickly ramp up and scale down the workforce is important for all businesses today. Add to this the dynamics of the fast-changing technology.
If today an IT major needs hundreds of Java experts, tomorrow it could be the turn of SAP experts. With this in mind, Satyam’s BPO subsidiary Nipuna has developed a flexible forecasting model. “This takes into account the monthly and even the weekly needs of a particular skill set,” said Naresh Jhangiani, head (HR) at Nipuna. All these mean that companies need to align their business forecasts with their employee forecasting and plan accordingly.
“A lot of effort goes towards projecting attrition... all these to ensure that our future employee requirement is ready at least a quarter in advance,” said Achuthan Nair, VP (strategic sourcing), Wipro Technologies.
This isn’t just about IT industry though. It is fast becoming critical in other sectors as well. Professionals in pharma and FMCG sectors have marketing and sales acumen, which are in demand in emerging sectors like telecom, insurance, financial services and retail as well. “Hence, qualitative forecasting is undertaken to identify sectors and companies that might be a future threat to us. This ensures better planning for skill requirement and retention,” said P Dwarkanath, director (HR) at GSK Consumer Healthcare.
Manufacturing firms are evolving qualitative forecasting models along side the quantitative model. “We extrapolate data to understand which employees are likely to leave the company within the next one year. This is done based on parameters like age, number of years in service and salary increase,” YV Verma, director (HR), LG India, said.
Certain sectors, however, have specific parameters for forecasting. A telecom firm like Bharti Airtel looks at the key productivity indicator of customers serviced per employee. For the retail sector, much of the forecasting is based on expansion of the retail space in square feet.
“Though it is quite complex, typically, a hypermarket spread over 50,000 sq ft will employ 220-odd people. However, planning skill requirement will assume more importance as it will become more difficult to control attrition as sectors grow,” said Sanjoy Jog, HR head at Pantaloon Retail India. All these may force companies to keep a buffer stock of employees for critical functions.
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