Rise in attrition rate of project managers worry Indian tech firms
Leading Indian IT firms, including Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, Wipro and others are confronted with tricky circumstances in coping with rekindled requirement for offshore outsourcing since the attrition rate among these firms’ project managers have soared again. In general, these project managers possess three to five years’ experienced and are dealing with vital delivery teams for prominent clients worldwide.
According to a report in a news website, a number of IT companies in India are burdened with the difficulty of coping with the elevated attrition rates at a juncture wherein tech firms are increasing the pay packets and inducements of software engineers. Management of these IT firms is apprehensive that if the attrition rate soars to around 40 per cent, it would upset their continuing commitments.
A senior official of a middle-level Indian outsourcing company, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, even as their customers have been insisting that we withhold our project managers, but the maximum they were able to do to entice the project managers is to raise their salaries by 15 to 20 per cent. However, they are helpless if multinationals like Cognizant or Accenture offers these project managers pay rise of around 40 per cent or more.
NASSCOM, the nodal body for Indian IT/ BPO industry, says that the information technology sector in the country will recruit as many as 90,000 new personnel during 2010 taking the total strength of IT employees in India to approximately 2.3 million. On the other hand, Absolute HR International, India, CEO, Kunal Banerji is of the view that since project managers draw the junior associates of their team, they often get a 40 per cent salary hike while moving from one job to another. In addition, some project managers are also disillusioned over the latest policies adopted by some IT firms like Infosys vis-à-vis promotions and are leaving their existing firms for better salaries and incentives.
It may be noted that though India has no dearth of talents to serve the IT industry, it still suffers from lack of adequate project management professionals and this is responsible for triggering attrition. Zinnov Management Consulting director Karthik Ananth is of the view that it is really difficult to come across professionals with excellent project management talents and notable experience in dealing with diverse types of projects as well as clients, which has actually led to a rise in the demand for such professionals.
As a result of such high level of attrition of project managers, different IT firms in India are not only going all out to retain their existing employees and hiring new professionals, but also trying to win back employees who have left them earlier. While India’s second largest IT firm Infosys has already launched a program called ‘Green Channel’ to woo back its former employees, smaller firms like MphasiS too have initiated a ‘Homecoming’ project to hire back its former employees.