It is best to take real instances from the corporate world on how companies, especially from the talent-hungry IT services industry, have managed the art of attraction and retention thereby extracting maximum performance from employees to enhance profitability.

In the view of K Ganesan, VP HR, Tata Consultancy Services, retention starts from recruitment itself, that is, hiring the right set of people will determine their longevity in the organization. Having the right set of people practices internally is equally important. This includes the ability to offer career paths that meet individual aspirations, creating world-class training environment for continuous self-development and a stimulating and motivating work environment that aligns individual goals to business goals. This will push individuals on a high performance curve directly impacting business performance.

HCL is driven by a philosophy it refers to as ‘Employee First Customers Second’ that recognizes employees as strategic elements of an organization. It democratizes the company’s functions and its way of working and gives the employees the necessary power and space to execute their ideas. Explains Dilip Kumar Srivastava, Corporate Vice President & Global HR Head, HCL Technologies, “Via Employees First, maximum value is created at the employee-customer interface. It is essential that we empower these passionate and committed individuals so that they can generate delight for the customer at every step of the way.”

From Patni’s view, though monetary benefits certainly help attracting talent, there are several other factors which contribute to making a company an ‘employer of choice’. Here are several examples: Firstly, making the work environment conducive for productivity; secondly, creating ample learning opportunities. “Patni has a training venture called Patni Academy for Competency Enhancement and recently launched the Patni Leadership Academy to cater to all technical, functional and managerial trainings,” says Rajesh Padmanabhan, Executive Vice President and Global Head - HR, Patni; Thirdly, investing in physical and psychological health for employees by providing access to employee care centers and anonymous councelling in times of personal or professional stress.

Zensar Technologies, aligns the goals of the organization to the employee’s goals by giving 30-40% weightage on compensation and 60-70% weightage on employee engagement. This gives the employees a sense of ownership to the organization that they are a part of. In an endeavour to increase employee engagement at all levels in the organization, Zensar Technologies has taken several initiatives such as the ‘Vision Community’.

About 70-80 new employees across levels take part in this program on an annual basis. It is the think-tank of the organization where Zensar encourages idea generation and involvement from the members of the community. These initiatives create a sense of belonging and high retention among the employees of the organization. “Due to all these initiatives, the attrition rate of Zensar is less than 10-12% overall, while the key talent or the critical talent attrition rate is less than 2%. That is simply because all of the 500 most critical employees have access to all top level management,” explains Dr. Ganesh Natarajan - Vice Chairman and CEO, Zensar Technologies