HR Issues in the IT Industry

The IT industry came into India with a mighty bang. IT becomes extremely relevant for HR professionals simply because the main knowledge “resource” of the IT industry is “human”. The initial big bang saw a large number of engineers moving into the IT industry. But now, the scenario has changed.
What used to be a top-notch career option for smart engineers has now become a backup plan. When I had passed out of college, IT jobs were a dream come true. People held it up proudly. Except for a few, this path was the future ahead for many. But when I went to my college a couple of days back, my juniors informed me that now IT jobs were a backup for almost all the students. Nearly all the final year students are either writing exams for higher studies or looking for technical jobs. What happened to the ‘dream companies’ that charmed youngsters? That made the youth of India proud to be associated with them? Let’s look into some of the characteristics of the IT industry and how things have changed with time.
Almost all the work in IT companies in India can be broadly divided into two sections: one involves developing new software technology depending on requirements of clients and the second deals with maintaining already existing software. To elaborate, the first form of work is extremely interesting: The client gives you certain requirements and demands and you have to develop new software for the client. The second type is a little less fascinating. Here, you work with already existing clients. If there are issues or problems with the software provided to the client, you work on them and solve them. As can be guessed, most of the work in IT companies is of the second type. Most of the software requirements of clients are related to maintenance.
And the problem arises here. Working in maintenance does not require too much of creativity. You are given a huge chunk of code, which you need to look through, debug and make necessary changes to. For a youngster, who is at the beginning of a ‘colorful career ahead’ as the advertisements offered, how attractive is this?
Perhaps, in a different market scenario, people would have been ready to work on these types of projects. But the opening up of the market and the large number of job opportunities change the equation altogether. An organization cannot retain an employee with false promises anymore. There are too many companies in the market, ready to pounce on that young man, who even shows the slightest interest in moving out of his job.
Also, the greater business opportunities have increased the demand for software engineers in the country. In the Indian ITES sector, as many as 200 personnel are hired every working day of the year. As per Nasscom’s annual market intelligence study—Strategic Review 2003, there would be a requirement of 1.1 million professionals in the ITES-BPO segment by the year 2008. There are a large number of projects which involve big-time money that need to be manned accordingly. Talent is in high demand, and organizations are running wild to get numbers.
The altered market scenario has not only brought in the kind of change mentioned above; it has also increased the ambitions of young minds. We know we are in demand; we know we have opportunities wherever we go. We can take risks; in the end, even if nothing else works, one just needs to float his CV on one of those websites and tada! there are hundreds of jobs waiting.
A news piece that I was reading a few days back states that the scenario has changed from just hiring anyone and everyone (due to shortage of manpower) and that the requirement presently is for professionals with more domain-specific skill sets and business analysts with programming skills. This trend clearly reflects that Indian ITES companies are tapping high-value service segments. Therefore, HR targets people with experience, in order to reduce training expenses and time spent on developmental activities.
At this juncture, I would like to mention some observations that I made while I was working with Infosys. Infosys recruits not only engineers, but people with basic degrees such as Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) and Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) as well. They then put them on projects that do not need technical expertise, for example, testing and service centers. After working with the company for a couple of years, by when they get a hang of things, they are provided with intense training and promoted to the cadre of software engineers, equivalent to a fresh entrant from an engineering college. The point that I would like to make here is that the big companies like Infosys are now looking beyond engineers. There are several advantages to this approach:
(a) More graduates are being given good job opportunities.
(b) Since the basic work is being done by other graduates, engineers can be given more attractive work and therefore, keeping them interested becomes easier.
(c) Graduates demand lesser salaries than professional engineers.
(d) As I mentioned earlier, the larger percentage of projects are maintenance projects which do not require great skill sets. By employing trained graduates to do this work, you can imagine the profits that can be generated, since they demand lesser salaries as well.
(e) Companies like Infosys can now target maintenance projects largely. The advantage is that this ensures larger number of projects and larger profits as well. It also ensures that the company can spread its grasp over a larger number of clients across various sectors and geographies.
But there is one problem that the industry still faces. This is the problem of training. There are a large number of issues related to training. Well, I myself am a perfect example to prove my point. I joined Infosys in a batch of 1000 odd fresh engineers from colleges across India. We were divided into 5 classes and were initially provided generic training. After a month or so of this generic training, we were given specializations randomly. We then studied these specializations and within a couple of months or so, were done with our training.
Before I go on, it would be wrong on my part not to mention some things. Infosys provides amazing training classes and facilities. The faculty is talented, the facilities provided are impeccable and the material is above par. All in all, the 1st impression that you have is: WOW! They are putting in a lot of efforts to make sure that we feel at home. But unfortunately, in most cases, these efforts bear no fruit.
First of all, training calls for heavy expenses. But people like me, who have no intentions of staying in the company for long, utilize these training facilities and then quit. For a company like Infosys, this is something they can bear with. But a more important fact is that smaller IT companies are taking advantage of the high quality training provided by the biggies. The model of companies like Infosys is high quality training, lower salaries. (This model is the only way companies can face attrition. They can’t fight attrition, so they work on a model that will cause them least harm.) The model of smaller IT companies is no training, higher salaries. So, a number of people after the high quality training and some experience move out to smaller companies which offer them better salaries.
A grave mistake that the HR in Infosys made is that trainees were given specializations randomly. They were given no preferences. This demotivates a large number of engineers who may have specific interests and perhaps even some form of previous training in certain specializations. What’s even worse is that after a few months’ of grueling training in a particular specialization, people are mostly put into projects on platforms other than those they are specialized in. People get frustrated at this point as all the training obtained so far has gone to waste and more training has to be undergone.
All these issues point to one fact: the role of HR in the IT industry cannot be ignored. The solution to a number of problems that are faced by the IT industry may lie in the hands of the HR of these companies. Let’s look into how HR can help:
1. Recruitment: The ability to identify the right talent is crucial. This is a basic feature of good recruitment. But now, attention may be shifted from fresh engineers to other graduates with basic aptitude and attitude.
2. Training: Employees’ preference may be considered before providing them specializations. As much as I do agree that business requirements are important, this is a good way to ensure that employees feel that their needs are being catered to.
3. Employee Development and Performance Management: It’s not only about identifying talent, it’s also about providing the right platforms for growth. Skilled youngsters know that they are in demand. They must be provided with what they want, at some point of time or the other. False promises don’t work anymore.
In the future, HR managers have to continuously evolve career paths, motivate their employees and create a culture of oneness, which will also act as retention tools. A lot lies in the efficiency of HR tools in an organization. This fact, if ignored, can cause the downfall of the organization even before it realizes it.