Call it the season of strategic job moves. If early trends stated by HR consultants are something to go by, India Inc may need to brace itself for high employee exodus in the next few months a period that immediately follows the appraisal season in most companies.
Several HR practitioners have told TOI that an average rise of 15-20% in attrition is estimated for the quarter ending June compared to the same period last year across sectors, largely due to heightened employee expectations and a buzzing job market.
HR consulting firm Randstad said that a 2-5 percentage points rise (around 20%) in attrition is likely in the quarter compared to the same period in 2014, in organizations where appraisals have just concluded. “Attrition is likely to be more pronounced in the tech sector with emergence of new businesses like e-commerce and growth of small and medium enterprises benefitted by cloud computing,” Aditya Narayan Mishra, president of staffing at Randstad India said.
Randstand’s ‘HR Game Changers 2015’ survey of December also indicates that 59% of Indian employees are looking to change their jobs in 2015 buoyed by a buzzing job market.
Though companies do not track employee exits directly linked to appraisals, HR consultants agree that the May-July period records highest attrition across industries a period when those not happy with their performance review or salary hikes tend to quit pursuing better opportunities. According to experts, this attrition largely depends on the sector’s economic situation, job market sentiment and other available opportunities.
PeopleStrong, a platform based HR outsourcing firm, said that based on early trends, they expect a 15-20% increase in the attrition in the quarter corresponding to completion of appraisal from same period last year, across sectors. According to Pankaj Bansal, founder of PeopleStrong, in such a scenario, cutting edge recruitment technology helps to ensure quick turnaround time.
Executive search firm GlobalHunt said that in the current job market scenario, attrition in the June quarter is likely to grow by 5-10% compared to 2014. “This applies to the pool which are above average performers and do not see much growth opportunities within the organisation in terms of role and compensation,” said Sunil Goel, MD of GlobalHunt India. He added that this increase is likely to clock in the lower range in oil & gas and manufacturing space. Recruitment portal Timesjobs.com also believes that appraisals will have marked results in the job market this year, especially among tech players. “Indian IT majors have set the market mood with appraisals that were below expectations. IT professionals seem to be opting for better opportunities in e-commerce and product domains, leaving employers to bump up hiring,” said Vivek Madhukar, COO, TimesJobs.com.
In the banking sector, specialist recruitment firm Michael Page India believes while last year, salary hike expected from a new job was around 15-20%, this year the minimum expectation from any candidate is around 30% hike while looking at a change. “We have witnessed a 50% higher attrition level as compared to last year across all revenue-generating functions in banking,” Nicolas Dumoulin, regional director of Michael Page India said.
Ashok Reddy , MD and cofounder of TeamLease Services however believes that in the absence of early data with them, attrition trends are likely to be a replay of the last year considering that the job market is seeing more of a positive sentiment than actual robustness. “The impact of appraisal linked attrition might not just play out across the current June quarter but also slip into the next period since some sectors complete appraisals only in June,” Reddy added.
This article was published on TOI
