Attrition rate has fallen sharply in IT, ITeS and the BPO sector to the level of about 15-20 per cent during the last six months of this year as against about 55-60 per cent in the year-ago period, industry body Assocham said today.
“An uncertain global economic environment together with cross-currency fluctuation has compelled the employees to adopt a wait-and-watch policy leading to a sharp decline in the attrition levels in the IT-BPO sector,” Assocham Secretary General D S Rawat said while releasing the findings of the study.
The rate of attrition at all levels of the organisation has seen a fall ranging between 45-50 per cent between January-June, mostly due to a fragile global economy, a recent industry specific survey carried out by Assocham said.
Global economic turmoil has led to a fall in hiring activities and a high employee retention rate could be seen almost across all levels of management and it has come as a blessing in disguise considering that human resource is important for the success of this knowledge-intensive industry, Rawat said.
“Employees are wary of switching over jobs due to continued apprehensions of the economic slowdown being likely to continue for some more time,” he said.
Attrition level is at the minimum of about five per cent amid employees with working experience of over 10 years, while it was about 7-10 per cent amid employees having 5-10 years experience and it was about 15—20 per cent amid employees having less than five years’ work experience, Rawat said.
Assocham representatives interacted with about 300 job consultants, recruitment professionals, HR specialists, industrial psychologists and administration officials at various companies in the domain of IT, ITeS and BPO at six leading centres —— Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Gurgaon, Noida and Pune to ascertain the extent of movement in the job market.
Majority of respondents in the centres said global economic slump has played a spoilsport to the aspirations of employees who have not been able to change their job due to unsatisfactory appraisal as many companies provided a paltry hike during the annual appraisal season.
“Decline in attrition level is a positive sign as frequent job—switching might prove to be fatal for the survival and growth of India’s BPO sector,” Rawat said.