The JobOkPlease Blog

ICICI Bank CEO speaking to the TOI says the bank aims to touch 'single digit attrition' figures even as it plans to recruit 20-30,000 people every year. The current attrition rate stands at 15-18%.

One of the initiatives he elaborated on: ICICI actively participating in increasing the pool of people with the right skill sets. The bank is providing a 6 month training module for the curricula of NIIT, Manipal University and ICFAI. Of course, this 'talent pool' is not exclusive to ICICI - it is available to other recruiters as well.

The bank's strategy thus is two fold:
1) Try to retain more of those who join you
2) Keep training more young people to take the place of those who leave you

However attrition is a difficult animal. ICICI is not one of the top paymasters in the industry, although it is very well regarded for 'quality' of work and as a training ground.

Given the continuing boom in the job market single digit attrition will probably remain a dream. But yes, the fact that ready and well trained replacements are available will make this fact of life easier to deal with!

A related news report on the same page notes: India has 47% of the global outsourcing market and will grow to a value of $40 billion this year. However, attrition rates are 40-60%, depending on who you ask, coupled with 10-15% annual wage inflation hitting the sector".

Reminds me of the old folk tale: killing the golden goose. If costs and labour shortages continue, BPOs may relocate to their home countries - or other cheaper places. Na rahenge itne easily available jobs, na rahegi itna attrition.

Remember the days of mushkil se milti thi paanch hazaar ki naukri?

Labels: attrition

With acute shortage of skilled workforce, the recruiters today are ready to concede to most demands - reasonable or unreasonable - of their job-seeking candidates. And it is for this handicap of the Employers that the jobseekers are taking them for a ride.

In what was merely an aberration till sometime ago now seems to be fast catching up as a trend. After having almost confirmed their jobs, the new recruits just don’t turn up. On digging deeper one realizes that the interview calls attended by these jobseekers are a part their strategy to assess their shortcomings and to gauge the worth of their skills in the job-market; they may not necessarily be in want of that job. While this may be beneficial for the jobseeker, it completely undermines the efficacy of the hiring exercise undertaken by the Recruiter. After spending valuable resources and time on the hiring process the companies realize that they have to return empty hand, because very few of their selected candidates have actually taken up the offers made to them.

Choice spoils and that is exactly what the above trend is an indicator of. With multiple job offers and plethora of opportunities, jobseekers today are willing to wait that much longer because they realize that the next offer is only going to be better than the previous one.