On The Job : Infosys

18,000 people on the bench at Infosys

Aparna Kalra — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 09:01:00 GMT

From Business Week's 'India's outsourcers: Using the Slump to Get Bigger':

“[The] problem is, all of these initiatives are expensive. If the global economy doesn’t bounce back in a year or so, India’s outsourcers could find themselves saddled with legions of employees who have little to do. Infosys offered jobs to 18,000 college graduates last year and plans to hire more this year. But with scant work to give them, the company is doubling the length of their training to six months and assigning them mock projects to hone their skills. Though that’s not cheap, Infosys says it’s worth the investment.”

Forbes columnist and tech blogger Sramana Mitra who I follow on Twitter wants to know what these 18,000 people are doing while on the bench? Of course, also of concern here is the effect all this will have on the campus hiring cycle at IITs, NITs and other engineering colleges if the work that is expected does not materialise.

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Companies guarding their top talent, says report

Poornima Mohandas — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 16:20:00 GMT

A rising tide raises all boats but the same doesn't go when the tide ebbs. Companies, big and small, aim to be in ship-shape in anticipation of the good times and hence "continue to invest in critical talent as there is an increased fear that competitors may try to lure valuable employees," says a report released today by audit *** consulting firm, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India Pvt. Ltd.
While cutting back on regular training expenses, 70% of companies are investing heavily in building a strong leadership pipeline, right from identifying, engaging and developing high-performing employees, according to Deloitte's 'Employee engagement in recessionary times A changing talent perspective'. Most companies surveyed have stated building leadership pipeline (68%), retention of critical workforce (51%) and succession planning (51%) as the chief reasons for keeping their eyes on leadership development. Companies are engaging them giving them challenging roles like in product development. The survey polled 41 companies spread across the 5 cities of Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai and across sectors such as hi-tech, manufacturing, pharma and FMCG.
Companies are also increasingly involving employees in cost management like Indian arm of Microsoft Corp which acted on an employees' suggestion and cut back on bottles of mineral water in conference rooms. Infosys Technologies Ltd too went through thousands of suggestions from employees on this front. Companies are also communicating more with their employees to reassure them and perk up morale.

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A day at a BPO walk-in: wasted call?

Taru Bahl — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 08:47:00 GMT

My sprightly 70-year old father is just not the cribbing sort. But one thing that he does tend to feel a bit sore about is Indian recruiters’ penchant for ignoring resumes sent by ‘seniors’. Inspite of skillfully juggling three assignments, he still subscribes to Employment News and religiously goes through job supplements of national dailies. He even applies to jobs he thinks he fits in with. And his chief grouse: Why do the bulk of job adverts in Toi's Ascent and HT’s Horizons’ seek services for the BPO sector from a right-out-of-college generation.

With the world sliding into recession, the trend of ITeS companies overtaking merchant banking and finance companies at placement weeks in B-schools, is only going to put the spotlight more brightly on this ready-to-work lot. So while dad will have to learn to live with this ‘inequity’ I got some direct feedback from a company that had a marathon walk-in recently.

Walk-in interviews have been hugely successful for manpower intensive industries like ITteS, retail and healthcare where entry-to-mid level positions have been filled in a rather cost effective manner. Pick up any Ascent and see that 80% space is devoted to luring suitable candidates to simply walk-in to the swanky offices of Convergys, Infosys, Google, Wipro, Oracle and IBM with their resumes, have a quick interview and walk out with an appointment letter.

In a single stroke this process of recruitment has done away with 'middlemen' – recruiters, consultants and HR departments. Sans any screening and elimination of candidates and no one having to pay anything for every 'deal that gets struck', it seems like a win-win for all. It makes applicants feel good about being part of a fair process of job selection in an otherwise competitive job market and it gives employers a wide talent pool to choose from.

Imagine then, the shock and awe of a Noida-based IT company that thought it was going through a refined search process when they decided to skip the ToI and HT job supplements and instead post their requirement on select websites like naukri.com and monster.com along with referrals from within the office. Idea was to narrow down search for those 50 positions for whom the prerequisite was having a B.E/ B.Tech/ M. Tech, MCA qualification.

At 9 am the security alerted director, HR that about 50-odd people were at the gate. By 11 am the number had gone up to 1,500 and by 3 pm it had swelled up to more than 5,000. If parallels have to be drawn, the scenario was similar to what exists in the Indian Idol selection rounds. Apparently word had swiftly spread, thanks to the Internet. Engineering colleges across north India had the job brief pasted on their notice boards. Resultantly, applicants had trooped in from Rohtak, Panipat, Sonepat, Karnal, Chandigarh, Lucknow and all corners of Delhi (and these are not places known for peaceful co-existence!)

Now while the management seriously toyed with the idea of calling in the cops since the scenario outside their gates was far from amiable, HR tried handling the situation, as HR 'professionals' normally do(!). Departmental heads – from administration, accounts, purchase and hospitality were called in and asked to set up 'interview stations'. A standardized question format was prepared and an average of four minutes spent on each candidate, quizzing him/ her on various job required parametres.

At the end of 11 hours, the company had filled in only 15 positions. What to me was worrisome was that here were students who had legitimate engineering degrees while some had work experience too. Yet, when it came to a job fit, only 0.3% were found suitable. The HR head justified, "education is all very well, but where is the employability of a bulk of students who pass out from a medley of institutes? We were not asking for the moon, and we most certainly wanted to fill in our positions asap but looking for the right candidate is increasingly becoming like a needle-in-a-haystack kind of operation."

How much dedicated blogs (Walkin.wordpress.com and ChaloWalkin.com) and jobsites on walk-ins help remains a question, though there is little doubt that it will contribute to the effectiveness of word going around and a swelling number of applicants thronging company gates!

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17 years in a company? Gosh, that's so old fashioned!

Taru Bahl — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 06:43:00 GMT

Last weekend I was at an HR conference where a complete session was devoted to "I am 26, do not count on me to stay in this company". It told you what you already know – how the earplug and G-chat generation puts the grasshopper to shame as it hops, skips and jumps from one job to the next, all for a few extra rupees and perks.

However, in this melee of job-hopping scenarios and how-to-hold-them-back sessions, one is reminded of companies that have succeeded in retaining staff. Understanding how they have done it makes for interesting discussion, especially at a time when we are obsessed about pink slips, retrenchment, downsizing and holding on to what seem like stable jobs.

Ritu Anand, deputy global head (HR) who has been with TCS for 17 years says, "retention management is rarely the result of a single thing. There is no study that proves the linkage between any process and retention. It has to be a combination of well-timed factors." TCS has been known to have the right mix of ingredients to hold back employees. Industry watchers attribute it to the values and ethics that they endorse and the kind of people they bring on board to align with the same.

Ritu listed some of the things TCS does in three employee categories:

Women: Working from home; flexi-hours; variety of assignments that match competencies; picking a location of choice; different compensation models.

Young people: Salsa, music, gym, training opportunities, global exposure, informal communication (CEO's addressed by first names); fast paced careers, fast track promotions; performance linked increments/ bonuses; recognizing and rewarding specific achievements; opportunities for voluntary work.

Seniors: Desk jobs; meeting lifestyle expectations; increasing health benefits and insurance; educational grants for children; membership to clubs; training opportunities.

Her personal take on this: Employees value personalized offerings that recognize their concerns like extra health benefits, club memberships and educational grants – enough to make the decision to stay and not look elsewhere. And when you see from a CFO’s perspective, these are not initiatives that set the company back by billions of dollars!

One recalls how an industry chamber known to pay salaries that are more like stipends, earned unflinching loyalty of its staff, not because employees were so mediocre that they could not find work elsewhere, but because they received certain out-of-turn benefits that in a voluntary sense, tied them securely to the organization.

In the case of one high performing executive they went the extra mile and flew him to his native place when his father died in a tragic road accident. They footed the hospital bill, of not just his dependent mother but also in-laws who were in that smashed car. This one-time gesture had the person devoted to them for life. In another case when a mid-sized company stepped in to help a senior employee deal with an alcohol and weight problem, they ensured he stick it out with them till retirement and after that as an advisor. In both cases, money had little to do with their decision of staying on.

Am reminded of how in the mid-90's, a clutch of companies emerged with a reputation of being places which people joined, only to retire. Eicher prided itself as being a group that had strong HR when other firms were just about waking up to developing HR policies. Celebrations were called for every time someone completed 10/ 15/ 20 years. Framed certificates were ceremoniously handed out along with cash incentives and there was collective rejoicing in what was viewed as a family member's achievement.

First names were used when most places were 'Sirring' seniors. The then owner-CEO, Vikram Lal turned mentor, handing over the reins of the company, not to a member of the family but to his deputy, a professional, Subodh Bhargava. And mind you, this was long before Narayana Murthy had begun to consider being a mentor at Infosys. Sadly in the last few years, most of these very employees left to start their own HR consultancy outfits or head other auto companies.

When you see the correlation between a committed and happy-to-belong workforce and profits that a company posts year-on-year, you will see why companies like TCS score over companies like Eicher. And embedded within that lies the secret perhaps of retention. Like the other day someone in office said, "My job is like my marriage. I may look at pretty girls, evaluate them and be tempted to stray, but something holds me back." That "something" is the glue that binds.

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