Service sector faces maximum attrition: Study

New Delhi, June 14 (UNI) Rising opportunities and employee aspirations induced by robust economic growth has led to an attrition rate of more than 20 per cent in service sector while more and more personnel in manufacturing were also found to be restive, according to a survey.

The Assocham survey on 'Attrition Problem in a Growing Economy' covering 160 leading HR Heads found that the maximum of attrition is taking place among the employees who are in the age group of 26 to 30 years with experience range between two to four years.

The survey discovered that women employee were less prone to frequent job changing than their male counterparts. For every 10 males jumping the fence by changing the job, there was only two females crossing over.

With India joining the globalised world of business, the movement of workforce across national boundaries has added to the rising level of employee turnover according to 72 per cent of the survey respondents.

The immediate gains in salary package was found to be responsible for job change in 61 per cent of the cases, however the growth potential was rated quite high as an important reason prompting employee movement, said Assocham President Venugopal N Dhoot.

Almost 90 per cent of the respondent companies said the recruitment is an ongoing process throughout the year based on the vacant positions.

The average increase in salaries offered by the companies with new placement range between 25 to 30 per cent depending upon the salary structure and individual strengths.

The growing companies face higher attrition rates as compared to the established companies, as confirmed by 65 per cent of the senior HR executives surveyed by Assocham.

Last few years have seen a surge in the online job portals such as timesjobs, naukri, monster, clickjobs etc, providing the online job search option to jobseekers and resume database to placement consultancies.

Sixty-eight per cent of the surveyors agreed that to some extent, these websites have contributed to opportunities for jobseekers.

''While job portals provide a platform for people to look out for a change, feel the attrition is very much due to issues between an employee and employer,'' said the Country head of a leading international manufacturing company.

Most of the HR experts are of the opinion that the attrition level of 10-12 per cent is healthy for a company. Yet, there are problems that build up due to high attrition.

Eighty-one per cent of HR Managers felt that one of the major challenges arising out of attrition is loss of intellectual property, which is difficult to replace. It is more so in areas of hospitality, IT, hospitals, engineering.

The personnel heads surveyed felt the work gets affected due to replacement time, gaps in current client relationships and inability to get right skill set.

When asked about the measures taken by companies to tackle the problem of losing out the personnel, 73 per cent of the respondents felt that one of the ways to hold back employees is to chart out an organisational structure which promises career growth for the staff.

Around 55 per cent of the HR experts felt that it is possible for the Indian companies to implement the Maslow's theory of motivation which takes care of employee's physiological, safety, social, esteem and self-actualisation needs.

Most of the HR managers felt that counseling, organising workshops, initiating leadership programmes, training play important role in retaining talent.

The survey found a stark contrast between different working environment. On the one hand, there were firms where the employees were overstressed to the extent of getting illness like diabetes, hypertension and depression. These firms face maximum attrition.

On the other hand, the firms that provide healthy physical environment and congenial work culture are less prone to employee turnover.

UNI