IT companies create shadow talent pool
With no slack in job hopping by technology professionals, firms are adopting 'shadow hunting' to preempt any work-flow discontinuity due to attrition.
By Mini Joseph Tejaswi, TNN |
BANGALORE: With no slack in the job hopping proclivities of technology professionals, companies are adopting a practice that some call “shadow hunting” to preempt any work-flow discontinuity due to attrition.
This involves mandating head hunters to identify and maintain a “warm talent shadow” outside their organisations to ensure ready availability of talent as and when the need arises.
“Attrition happens right from pre-induction level. Techies are casual about hopping jobs, as jobs are aplenty in the market. So companies are forced to take additional measures to ensure quick replacements,” says T Arvind Krishna, HR head of an IT firm.
This trend is unique to India, says Nirupama V G, managing director of HR consultancy AdAstra. “Almost every employee has two or more job offers. In the past few months, we have seen many more companies asking for shadow arrangements. Consultants are asked to keep this ready-to-hire shadow warm, through occasional phone calls, short messages or e-mails,” she says.
Shrabani Basu, HR consultant and corporate trainer, says employers are on tenterhooks about employees quitting. Every single recruitment needs a couple of months, between identifying to actual staffing. “Time is business, and business means money. So tech firms are looking at buffer arrangements,” Basu says.
In areas like mainframe, systems administration and technical support, the joining ratio is 50%, and in the VLSI, embedded, telecom and datacom spaces, it is about 75%. Only two or three out of five selected eventually join.
Of these, one is likely to leave within one to six months of joining. “To handle this, companies often interview and identify more people than they actually require as back-up,” says Anjan Dutta, V-P in talent supply firm Summit HR.
According to Amitabh Das, CEO of Vati Consulting, the trend is particularly visible in the BPO industry, with its ratio of joining as low as 40%.
This involves mandating head hunters to identify and maintain a “warm talent shadow” outside their organisations to ensure ready availability of talent as and when the need arises.
“Attrition happens right from pre-induction level. Techies are casual about hopping jobs, as jobs are aplenty in the market. So companies are forced to take additional measures to ensure quick replacements,” says T Arvind Krishna, HR head of an IT firm.
This trend is unique to India, says Nirupama V G, managing director of HR consultancy AdAstra. “Almost every employee has two or more job offers. In the past few months, we have seen many more companies asking for shadow arrangements. Consultants are asked to keep this ready-to-hire shadow warm, through occasional phone calls, short messages or e-mails,” she says.
Shrabani Basu, HR consultant and corporate trainer, says employers are on tenterhooks about employees quitting. Every single recruitment needs a couple of months, between identifying to actual staffing. “Time is business, and business means money. So tech firms are looking at buffer arrangements,” Basu says.
In areas like mainframe, systems administration and technical support, the joining ratio is 50%, and in the VLSI, embedded, telecom and datacom spaces, it is about 75%. Only two or three out of five selected eventually join.
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Of these, one is likely to leave within one to six months of joining. “To handle this, companies often interview and identify more people than they actually require as back-up,” says Anjan Dutta, V-P in talent supply firm Summit HR.
According to Amitabh Das, CEO of Vati Consulting, the trend is particularly visible in the BPO industry, with its ratio of joining as low as 40%.
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