IT companies ask bad performers to leave
According to sources, top Indian as well as multinational IT companies are asking their deadwood to leave, even as they are in aggressive recruitment mode.
By Thanuja B M & P P Thimmaya, TNN |
BANGALORE: Deadwood’ is how they are known in the recruitment circles. And there seems to be a rise in the number of such deadwood who have flunked their appraisal test (been rated bad performers) in IT/ITeS companies and are being chucked out by the employers.
According to sources, top Indian as well as multinational IT companies are asking their deadwood to leave, even as they are in aggressive recruitment mode.
Recently, IBM India is reported to have asked over 1,000 people to leave because of bad performance. That’s about 1.9% of its total headcount of 53,000, and on par with 2-3% that Wipro sees in terms of percentage.
According to industry sources, while the average attrition rate for a well-managed company stands at around 18-20%, around 50% of this are actually non-performers who go out of the company.
“We hate to weed them out. So, our effort is to put them on improvement programmes. We have formal discussions with them, do an analysis and give them about six months to improve. If they still can’t perform, then we shake hands,” says Wipro’s HR executive vice-president Pratik Kumar. Stating that one needs to look at it not just from the human angle but also from the business impact, he added that “if you want to be competitive, you can’t shy away from it.”
The entire process of appraisal is done very systematically and there are 2-3 stages before any employee is put in the underperformer category, says Vati Consulting’s CEO Amitabh Das.
”I think it is good sign that companies are taking this very seriously as in the long run, it helps in improving the productivity of the company,’’ he added. Mr Kumar also points out that though the category has remained steady in percentage terms (about 2%), the bigger numbers being seen now are a factor of scale and size.
After all, the major IT companies in India have been adding between 12,000-25,000 people annually in the last couple of years, to take their headcount beyond 50,000 people.
So what happens to these guys? “People shown the door by the big companies are willing to go to the tier-II and tier-III companies, which welcome them since they have the brand in their resume. A HR person can’t always know why the candidate has left his previous job. So, for these people in the smaller companies, it’s a honeymoon period for first 6-8 months but if their performance continues to be bad, then they hit a career crisis.
Some of them are looking at joining start-ups while a bunch of them go to BPO firms,’’ says Adecco India CEO Ajit Isaac. “Some people get jobs on contract basis to ensure they get the relevant experience before trying for another good position. Or some go in for temp jobs,’’ says Ad Astra Consultants’ founder Nirupama VG.
According to sources, top Indian as well as multinational IT companies are asking their deadwood to leave, even as they are in aggressive recruitment mode.
Recently, IBM India is reported to have asked over 1,000 people to leave because of bad performance. That’s about 1.9% of its total headcount of 53,000, and on par with 2-3% that Wipro sees in terms of percentage.
According to industry sources, while the average attrition rate for a well-managed company stands at around 18-20%, around 50% of this are actually non-performers who go out of the company.
“We hate to weed them out. So, our effort is to put them on improvement programmes. We have formal discussions with them, do an analysis and give them about six months to improve. If they still can’t perform, then we shake hands,” says Wipro’s HR executive vice-president Pratik Kumar. Stating that one needs to look at it not just from the human angle but also from the business impact, he added that “if you want to be competitive, you can’t shy away from it.”
The entire process of appraisal is done very systematically and there are 2-3 stages before any employee is put in the underperformer category, says Vati Consulting’s CEO Amitabh Das.
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”I think it is good sign that companies are taking this very seriously as in the long run, it helps in improving the productivity of the company,’’ he added. Mr Kumar also points out that though the category has remained steady in percentage terms (about 2%), the bigger numbers being seen now are a factor of scale and size.
After all, the major IT companies in India have been adding between 12,000-25,000 people annually in the last couple of years, to take their headcount beyond 50,000 people.
So what happens to these guys? “People shown the door by the big companies are willing to go to the tier-II and tier-III companies, which welcome them since they have the brand in their resume. A HR person can’t always know why the candidate has left his previous job. So, for these people in the smaller companies, it’s a honeymoon period for first 6-8 months but if their performance continues to be bad, then they hit a career crisis.
Some of them are looking at joining start-ups while a bunch of them go to BPO firms,’’ says Adecco India CEO Ajit Isaac. “Some people get jobs on contract basis to ensure they get the relevant experience before trying for another good position. Or some go in for temp jobs,’’ says Ad Astra Consultants’ founder Nirupama VG.
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