BEL to hike wages of engineers

BANGALORE: Alarmed by high attrition rate, fuelled by competitors, defence PSU Bharat Electronics on Tuesday said it may raise the wages of engineers from January to stem the trend as it seeks to strengthen its "knowledge power".

"Attrition rate is a bit alarming; it's a worry for us," Chairman and Managing Director of the Bangalore headquartered defence electronics firm V V R Sastry said.

"We are taking good HR initiatives. We should arrest the attrition rate. We expect some wage revision from January," he said.

For BEL, which was accorded the Navratna status last month, giving it greater financial and operational autonomy, attrition comes from middle-level engineers, employees with 3-4 years experience. "They are poached by competitors. That's a problem for us."

"It's not difficult to attract talent; it's difficult to retain talent," Sastry said.

"When we had a total headcount of 18,000-plus, engineers numbered around 1,000. Now, when we have 12,000-plus, the number of engineers is around 2,500. So, we are increasing the basic brain power...knowledge power in the company".