Internet search giant Google Inc is arranging a 10% salary hike to all its 23,000 employees worldwide beginning next year. Industry indicates this as an attempt to protect its staff from drifting to its other competitor, Facebook. Incidentally, 10% of Facebook Staff are Google veterans. Market sources also reveal that many Google employees who helped run the company’s advertising along with product managers and engineers associated with Chrome and Android software project had joined Facebook last year. In a same attempt to maintain employee retention, in 2009 Google had re-priced millions of employee stock options when its value exhausted as share prices fell between 2007-09.

People Matters’ Take: Pay hikes may help in retaining employees but only for a short term; the practice is not sustainable for a long term perspective. It is imperative that Google first attempts to identify why employees are falling prey to head hunters and then subsequently come out with remedial measures. In today’s scenario of cut-throat competition, head hunters are luring talent with hefty pay package. Many companies are also harping on high levels of employee engagement to retain employees. On the flip side, it should also be noted that high engagement does not necessarily translates into low attrition. Companies should have regular conversations with employees to find out about their satisfaction levels with job descriptions and actual ground realities.