Staff engagement key for IT cos: HR solutions firms
- Bengaluru: A big focus of IT services companies today is employee engagement and retention, HR solutions com- IT COS panies say. This comes at a time when the attrition at all IT companies remains high at above 20% in most cases.
- "These companies I have been speaking to and dealing with want to know how to retain younger ones especially those in their 20s," Neil J Solomon, vp of Asia Pacific and Latin America at HR and workforce management company Ultimate Kronos Group (UKG) said.
- HR solutions firms point out that wage hike is only one of the things companies are using to retain employees. Citing the example of discount brokerage firm Zerodha, Daya Prakash, founder of Talent on Lease, an IT staffing company, points out how firms are paying attention to mental health problems and their general well-being to retain them. Zerodha had of fered half a month's salary as a bonus for employees who had a body mass index of less than 25.
- IT companies, Prakash said, are also finding ways to market their brand so that they can attract more and more people. "Employee engagement begins right at the onboarding and selection stage. Afterall, one of the reasons people come onboard or stay with the company is brand recall," he said.
- In a study, Leena AI, an employee experience platform, found that companies in general were finding it difficult to decrease the churn and find the right people.
- Prakash said employee branding and engagement has become an important consideration for human re- source teams alongside other things like ethics management, as legacy firms are having to compete with star- tups for talent. Ajoy Thomas, business head for retail, e- commerce, logistics and transportation at manpower solutions firm Team Lease Services, says that there is an increasing trend of differentiating between high-per- forming talent and average- performing ones, and giving the good ones recognition to keep them happy Thomas adds that apart from one-on- one discussions, goal tracking and employee feedback, companies are conducting surveys to understand how to keep employees engaged.