Can we combat attrition

When we wander in the humongous land of Google, we come across numerous definitions and meanings of the word attrition. Amusingly it is extensively used in the fields of warfare, medicine, geology, language etc. The one apt to our context is that the attrition is the measure of number of employees moving out of an organization during a specific period of time. A classic example would be the case of Wipro, one of the top IT companies in India. In 2014 Wipro witnessed an attrition level of 17% and employees with 5-6 years of work experience recorded the highest in this category. So, how did Wipro combat this situation?

Well, like the famous quotation “solution lies within the problem”. The crux of this solution was with the employees itself. Thus, came the “NOTCH UP” one of the biggest employee retention initiatives.

Most of the employees are opting for higher studies after acquiring 5-6 years of work experience. To minimize this trend Wipro is now offering employees with more than 2 years of experience in the company a chance to pursue higher studies at Pune based Symbiosis, Pilani's Birla Institute of Technology and Science or VIT University in Vellore. It has also partnered with ICFA to offer two year professional accounting programme. The organization is anticipating positive results in retaining the talent. The fee structure has been worked out between the colleges and Wipro. The fee would be reimbursed to students depending on their scores.

Some popular reasons for high attrition levels are better opportunities in the industry, poor job prospectus, lack of acknowledgement, poor working conditions, autocratic management, less challenging work etc.

Another example is the case of Infosys. Infosys has seen an attrition level of 19.5% in 2014. Henceforth, they have given 6-7% hike in the salaries and promotions to around 5000 employees to improve retention levels.

Hence, critical aspects for reducing attrition levels are employee satisfaction, better career growth opportunities, manager’s support and consideration, qualitative company culture, trust in leadership, job autonomy last but not the least good team dynamics.