““High Engagement and Low Attrition”High Engagement and Low Attrition”The Ultimate Desire of a CEO/HR HeadThe Ultimate Desire of a CEO/HR Head

A Discussion Amongst Thinkers

NASSCOMAugust 29, 2008Aadesh Goyal

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Attrition….the reasons that come up

• Relationship with Supervisor• Promised Role did not happen• Personal• Higher Studies• Been here some time

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Employee Engagement

• Comprehensive Framework

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10Job Role

Employee Development

Work Relationships

Feedback & Evaluation

Learning

Environment

Recognition

Communication

Engagement Areas

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In General

• Employee Engagement is seen through a comprehensive framework

• Attrition Studies are more superficial– Sporadic Exit Interviews

– Inconsistent Implementation

– The framework is quite general

– Low priority by HR managers

– Most employees do not want to ‘rock the boat’ when leaving

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Thought #1

• Use the Engagement Framework for Exit Interviews– Early Leavers, Top Performers, Others

– PeopleStrong experience shows that a combination of phone interview and web-based survey works very well

• Outsource Exit Interviews to drive execution– Internal team focuses on strategic issues

• Attrition Surveys provide ‘real hard facts’– Balance against the engagement action plan ‘tiredness’

and ‘cynicism’ creeps in as the whole thing looks too idealistic

• Set up formal Alumni networks to re-hire ex-employees!

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What delivers consistent quality?

• Process!

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HR Practices

• New Employee Induction• Compensation Management• Performance Management

• Training

• Employee Engagement• Attrition Management

What is the predictability of the deployment of these processes and practices?

How can we drive towards achievement of targets consistently?

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Thought #2: Engagement ‘Policy’

• Environment: Continue existing practice, extend globally• Learning: Enhanced offerings through ‘Leadership

Development and Education’– Special Focus on Managers at all levels

• Career Planning: Better follow-up and tracking of Career Action Plan of Best Performers by HR

• Relationships, Bonding, Recognition: Systematic Implementation of Skip Level Interaction…driven through HR team– All managers to have informal ‘one-on-one’ with direct

reports once a month– All Senior Managers and above meet their ‘skip level

subordinates’ once in 2 months– Metrics on coverage reported each month

Getting Managers to become better leaders is key

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….and a fortnightly dashboard

• For each employee – make an assessment on key parameters that drive retention:– Current Job/Assignment

– Career Aspirations

– Role Aspirations

– Compensation

– Other

– Overall

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…..dashboard…

• First Line managers prepare for their teams– HR Rep works with manager to help resolve ‘Red’

areas

– Next level Manager reviews each fortnight and handles escalations

• Same thing for employees who are managers– Senior level managers review and resolve the

‘red’ areas

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Thought #3 – Layered Process

• Deploy ‘rich’ Engagement Practice for ‘Top 20 to 25%’

• Shape-up or Ship-out for the Bottom Performers• Leaves 65 to 70% in the middle, most of whom

are individual players– Important but too large to deploy ‘rich’

Engagement Process

The ‘Important Middle’ …………………….Thought #4

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Thought #4 - Fungibility

• Break down work, roles, skills, competencies• Redefine things such that some roles get

created that require lower level of competency

13Measuring Complexity (of Domain Expertise)

Project Stage 1

Project Stage 2

Project Stage 3

Project Stage 4

Complexity Level 5Complexity Level 4Complexity Level 3Complexity Level 3Complexity Level 15

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1

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4• Measure ‘Competency’• Start people with low competency at lowest

competency level• Map them to appropriate tasks in a project• As people increase their ability, move them to more

complex tasks that require higher competency• Thus making the best use of abilities• ‘Competency’ framework would help implement

this

• Wipro and TCS hiring B.Sc. – and not B.Tech.

• Read ‘Complexity’ as ‘Competency’

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Internal Certifications

• When people join, given them a ‘roadmap’– Different ‘skills’ and ‘complexities’

– How can they change it – Training, Tutorials, OJT, Examinations, etc.

– Show how their ‘grade’ and ‘assignments’ would change

• Needs significant internal ‘upgradation’ of practices

• For example: IBM does this!

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Summary

• Studying Attrition in detail gives hard facts that can reinforce the ‘idealism’ of Employee Engagement

• Implement-able practices and process for Employee engagement– Layered Approach

– Fungibility

Case Study: Software IndustryCase Study: Software Industry

17Different Types of Projects & Business Models

• Do all these require the same pyramid?

Application Development

Sustenance

Testing

“Complex” Development

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Different Software Development Different Software Development MethodologyMethodology

An ExampleAn Example

#2

19Example: New Product DevelopmentDifferent Software Development Methodology

• New methodology requires 45% domain expertise compared to the 60% in current methodology!

Domain: 100%

Software: 0%

Concept/Design

Effort: 30%

Domain: 10%

Software: 90%

Implementation

Effort: 30%

Domain: 40%

Software: 60%

Integration

Effort: 20%

Domain: 10%

Software: 90%

Testing

Effort: 20%

Domain: 100%

Software: 0%

NE

WN

OW

Domain = High Level System Engineering Capability

Paying attention to Product Expertise and building it in Software Engineers and Senior Software Engineers would help to reduce this further

20Example: Testing ProgramDifferent Software Methodology

• New methodology requires 37% domain expertise compared to the 60% in current methodology!

Domain: 100%

Software: 0%

Concept/Design

Effort: 20%

Domain: 10%

Software: 90%

Scripting

Effort: 20%

Domain: 10%

Software: 90%

Execution

Effort: 50%

Domain: 100%

Software: 0%

Final Testing

Effort: 10%

Domain: 100%

Testing: 0%

NE

WN

OW

Paying attention to Product Expertise and building it in Software Engineers and Senior Software Engineers would help to reduce this further

Domain = High Level System Engineering Capability