The last few weeks have been
particularly laden with resignations. Possibly the new found hope
generated by the “make in India” policy of PM Modi has begun to
generate opportunities and new jobs. My early decision not to allow
either myself or the Company to be demoralised by a resignation has
paid rich dividends. Instead we decided to accept resignations as
part and parcel of a growing company and looked at ways to
'resignation proof' the company.
The key to having an attitude of
acceptance is the fact that each of us has reached a position of
responsibility in the Company where we accept resignations because
we have ourselves resigned to take advantage of opportunities in the
past. Basically leaving one job and taking up another is part of
development of a career and harvesting rich experience. This is
beneficially to the Company when it hires a new person with
experience, obviously he has resigned from some other place.
The most obvious answer is pay a salary
much higher than industry average. The reason this does not hold
water is because the best paying companies also have resignations and
two if your Company is paying higher than its capacity, you know
where it is headed and you will have resignations faster than rats
deserting a sinking ship. So paying more or less is not a solution.
We have tried the concept of loyalty bonus. We pay a lumpsum at the
end of three years if the employee is still working with us, that too
is not a foolproof method.
Creating an environment with
opportunities for growth and developing a sense of camaraderie
through team work. This too will not stop people moving on but one
good side effect is that it definitely creates a good environment
for the people who are still working in the Company.
I regret having to change one policy
that we started with. Initially our appointment letters did not
require the employee to give notice when they wished to leave. The
logic being, once an employee has decided to change, his commitment
and involvement reduces, in such a situation it is better he leaves
immediately. However, we now insist on notice period or pay in lieu
of same to allow for transition and to ensure our customers are not
inconvenienced.
Fast changing technology whose
acquisition cost is reducing everyday gives us the best opportunity
to beat attrition. Yes if you can afford it, robots would be a high
end solution, operations like welding painting are done by robots,
for smaller companies this may not be feasible.
What is feasible is using menu driven
systems which allow anyone to operate with minimum training. We used
to record orders and make invoices manually. When a new person joined
it took a while for them to understand the products, variations,
customers and most difficult was making an excise invoice correctly,
added to that was the complication of sales tax. Often, we used have
issues at the border because the tax authorities would stop the
vehicle as the CST no was not incorporated in the invoice. Today the
story is different, it is menu driven, with drop downs for selection,
certain information has to be filled and calculations and printing
automated and therefore error free.
So while we cannot stop anyone from
leaving we have made the process a little less painful for us and our
customers by adopting technology and putting systems in place. These
IT driven systems ensure easy training and consistent process. Now
the focus is not on retention but on pushing to finds ways to reduce
dependency on human intervention and ultimately reducing the issues
involved with attrition. Merry Christmas and happy hiring in 2015.
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