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Employee Attrition and Retention Strategies: A Comparative study of leading

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Employee Attrition and Retention Strategies: A
Comparative study of leading Indian IT Companies

Ms. Sonal Gupta * Dr. Sukhvir Singh

Assistant Professor Assistant Professor
Department of Commerce Department of Commerce
Hansraj College SGTB Khalsa College
University of Delhi University of Delhi

*Corresponding Author: sonalgupta@hrc.du.ac.in

Employee Attrition and Retention Strategies: A Comparative

study of leading Indian IT Companies
Abstract

Organizations are made up of People and function through people. Employees are biggest assets of
any organization. The relationship between organization and its employees are redefining in the fast
changing environment. Workforce issues ranging from competitive and permanent staffing to talent
management, outsourcing and talent development are being observed as key barriers to scale and
sustain in almost all the sectors and industries. Perhaps the biggest challenge facing firms that employ
knowledge workers with base of over one lakh each, is figuring out how to attract and retain them.
Today Digital age has arrived. The $143-billion Indian IT industry employs more than three million
people, attracts best talent worldwide on one side and is struggling with high “employee churn “on the
other. Attrition in the IT services segment ranges from 15-18 percent. So, there is a dire need of the
present study to address this alarming issue of attrition in IT companies seriously and ensuring long
term retention. Based on market capitalization the top three leading IT companies - TCS, Infosys and
Wipro were taken for the study and their published annual reports were referred to check the attrition
trend and their respective human resource strategies and initiatives. The time period from FY 2011-12
to 2015-16 was taken for the present study. Over the years, an upward trend in employee attrition has
been observed and all three leading IT companies are found moving in same direction in terms of HR
management. Organizations attempted to tackle the problem of attrition in their own ways through
innovative initiatives and incentives including hefty bonuses. Though they are able to control attrition
within limits but despite all efforts, reducing attrition rate is certainly a challenge. After analysing the
results we concluded that comparatively TCS is able to attract, integrate, develop and retain the best
talent to some extent which deliver business growth. Based on five years average attrition, TCS
remain the industry benchmark for talent retention. The growing realization of the importance of
people as a source of competitive advantage calls for the strategic management of human resources.
Companies need to look at the employee’s entire lifecycle, to ensure timely interventions and should
be committed to provide a progressive workplace to workforce. Initiatives centered on skill
development will definitely pay to the company. Employee engagement platforms help in improving
employee’s overall well-being, bonding within the organization and promoting work-life balance,
thereby, increasing employee retention. Measures and initiatives taken by the company should be
more consistent to gain employee retention. . Long term retention requires a structured and inclusive
approach.

2
Employee Attrition and Retention Strategies: A Comparative
study of leading Indian IT Companies
*Sonal Gupta and Sukhvir Singh
*Department of Commerce, Hansraj College and Department of Commerce, S.G.T.B Khalsa College
*Corresponding Author: sonal775@gmail.com

Introduction
Organizations are made up of People and function through people. Employees are biggest assets of
any organization. It is widely recognized that the relationship between organization and its employees
are redefining in the fast changing environment. As firms compete globally, managing human
resources has become even more critical. The speed of change in today’s world makes it imperative to
focus on forward-looking policies, shaping talents for tomorrow and invest in futuristic systems and
applications. Workforce issues ranging from competitive and permanent staffing to talent
management, outsourcing and talent development are being observed as key barriers to scale and
sustain in almost all the sectors and industries. Perhaps the biggest challenge facing firms that employ
knowledge workers with base of over one lakh each, is figuring out how to attract and retain them.
Today management’s focus has shifted from ‘recruitment’ to ‘retention’. Retention is a
complimentary figure to attrition. More often, Attrition is described as a reduction in
workforce. Employee attrition occur when an employee leaves the company voluntarily or
involuntarily1. Company’s attrition rate also referred to as the employee turnover rate or the “churn”
rate determine the percentage of employees that left the business over a specified period of time,
usually one year2.
Today Digital age has arrived and characterized by an accelerating trend of hyper connectivity
between humans and also between humans and smart devices. Demand for Information Technology is
being driven by acceleration in adoption of digital. Today given this digital transformation of the
world, IT proves to be the booming sector. IT industry attracts best talent worldwide on one side and
is struggling with high “employee churn “on the other. The startling surge of attrition at all levels in
the IT industry opened up an unexplored arena for research. It motivated many researchers to work on
attrition in the industry, growth of the industry and employment opportunities that it was breeding.
Most of the research is done to find out the causes of attrition. According to Verma and Garg (2011)
causes of attrition are different in relation to the gender. Raina(2006) by means of surveys ,
observations and interviews ascertained that employee’s attrition is higher in the age group of 20-25
years and within three months of joining young professionals leave the job because of slow career
growth, poor relations with seniors and/or colleagues, health problems, work life imbalance and for
higher studies. As per Bhatnagar (2007) organizational culture and career planning along with
incentives were found indicative of high attrition and for high retention–need for rigorous employee
engagement (model) construct is recommended. Kumar and Arora (2012) found that employees
append greater value to organization’s atmosphere, supportive top management and comparative
salary structure along with other monetary benefits. Ramaiya (2008) found External inequity of
compensation as the major reason for talent attrition whereas limited career opportunities and role
stagnation are stated as top two reasons for low retention. However, Jeswani & Souren (2008)
suggested that High compensation will not guarantee retention but employee engagement is necessary
to retain an employee. Similarly, Smith (2001) argued that “money gets employees at the door but it
doesn’t keep them there”. According to Sengupta, Santoshi, (2011) Low perceived value stands out as
the most significant factor for attrition. Increased dissatisfaction leads to reduced motivation, which in
turn results in lowered efficiency. When the efficiency is lowered, employees are not able to deliver
their expected output which results in their leaving the job. When employees quit, the perceived value
is further lowered. Thus a vicious circle is formed. It is further suggested that if employees are
motivated and involved in work, they can be retained. James (2012) identified many factors
1
responsible for high attrition in the states of Kerala & Karnataka and further suggested that highly
competitive salary packages and good HRM practices is the need of the hour to address the attrition
problem. Prasad (2015) recommended Software firms need to develop different retention strategies
for different employees according to their needs and roles.
Research and studies conducted by experts in this area can be summarized as employee career
advancement opportunities, employee engagement HR strategies along with competitive packages are
the deciding criteria leading employees switching firms. In nutshell, employee retention continues to
be a big challenge for the industry.

Significance of the Study

To most businesses, keeping track of employee attrition rate is a key success metric. Companies aim
for low attrition. High attrition level is a causing concern for organizations as it may cost significant
amount of money to continually replace employees. In fact, in most verticals it is more profitable to
keep current employees than to acquire new. Prakash & Chowdhry (2004) pointed that the combined
direct and indirect costs associated with one employee leaving the organization ranges from a
minimum one year’s pay and benefits including the loss of corporate memory, affecting productivity,
profitability, product and service quality, negatively affecting employment, morale and workplace
safety. Furthermore, customers may perceive a drop in the value of company’s product or service due
to a diminished work force or lack of morale or motivation in remaining employees. This damage to
the brand may further impact company’s bottom line3. Whatever the reasons are, it is clear that the
companies are uncomfortable with the high churn out rate of its employees and it should be monitored
and managed.
We live in such time when Technology is reshaping our lives. The need for going digital is
essential to remain relevant to the need of Gen Y – the future workforce. ’Digital India’ initiative
driving activity in the domestic market adds to the justification. Indian IT sector’s growth and
increasing maturity is reflected across multiple dimensions. The Indian IT-BPM sector continues to
be one of the largest employers in the country directly employing nearly 3.7 million. Aggregate
IT industry revenues for FY2016 are estimated at USD 143 billion, contributing 9.3% directly to
India’s GDP and share more than 45% in service exports. Indian IT-BPM is on track to achieve USD
225 billion target by 2020 (Nasscom data 2016). IT companies are facing difficulty in winning deals
at the traditional high-margin businesses so, there is pressure on IT companies to cut prices on the
services they are offering. Either they go for value addition services or cut the cost of human
resources or both, to maintain the operating margin4. Services sector saw an attrition rate of 19.3%,
compared to 12.2% in manufacturing6. Attrition in the IT services segment ranges from 15-18
percent8. From sector leader Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) downwards, high employee attrition is
an issue at information technology service companies4 which if left unexplored will have far reaching
implications on the growth of Indian economy. So, there is a dire need of the present study to address
this alarming issue of attrition in IT companies seriously and ensuring long term retention .
Many studies have been undertaken on attrition, however, no systematic and comprehensive
work has been found that study the prevailing attrition trend and respective human resources
strategies and initiatives to address the underlined causes mentioned by the earlier research. Thus, the
present study is an attempt to study the attrition trend and underline the gap between identified
determinants and HR strategies.

Objectives of the present study:

After reviewing all the specific studies related to attrition and retention we set the following
objectives of the present study:
1. To study the trend of attrition and the present human resource strategies and initiatives in
leading Indian IT companies.
2. To compare the attrition trends in leading Indian IT companies and their respective strategies
and initiatives.
2
Research Methodology
The Research Methodology is the important way to achieve the research objectives. Based on market
capitalization the top three leading IT companies - TCS, Infosys and Wipro were taken for the study
and their published annual reports were referred to check the attrition trend and their present HR
strategies and initiatives . Statistical tools like Tables, Histogram, and Graphs etc. are used to interpret
the data. Average of Attrition (%) is calculated for comparison. The time period from FY 2011-12 to
2015-16 was taken for the present study.

Results
The findings of the present study is described in two parts. The first is about Attrition trend and
human resources strategies and initiatives specifically to address attrition and retention and the second
is the comparison of Attrition trends of three leading Indian IT companies.

ATTRITION TREND and HR STRATEGIES & INITIATIVES

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is known as the “Face" of Indian IT Industry. TCS is amongst the
world’s top 10 IT service-providers. TCS is an IT services, business solutions and outsourcing
organization. It offers a consulting-led, integrated portfolio of IT and IT-enabled services delivered
through its unique Global Network Delivery Model™ (GNDM™) recognized as the benchmark of
excellence in software development. Company’s last five years (2011-12 to 2015-16) published
Annual Reports were analyzed.
Table 1 Human Resource Indicators

Year → 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 Q1 Q2

Indicators ↓ FY 17 FY 17

Total Headcount 2,38,583 2,76,196 3,00,464 3,19,656 3,53,843 3,62,079 3,71,519

Gross Addition 70,400 69,728 61,200 67,123 90,182 17,792 22,665
Net Addition 39,969 37,613 24,628 19,192 34,187 8,236 9,440
Attrition % 12.2 10.6 11.3 14.9 15.5 13.6 12.9
Women 31.6 32.4 32.7 33 33.8 33.8 34.3
Employees%

Graph 1 TCS Attrition

We found the annual attrition trend fluctuating majorly increasing which is clearly shown in Graph 1.

3
Human Resource Trends:

 TCS reported the highest headcount of 3.7 lakh plus employees and an all-time hike in women
employees to 34.3 percent for the Sept, 2016 quarter.
 The total number of employees including subsidiaries as on March 31, 2016 was 353,843 (End-
FY15: 319,656)
 There is strong hiring momentum and expected to continue. The incremental gross hiring is in the
range of 15-20 percent8.
 Company exceeds its hiring targets of 55,000 by 12,000 as for the year ended March 31, 2015,
TCS lost 14.9% of its total workforce of over 3 lakh employees. The company lost a total of
47,931 employees in the year, however, in totality, TCS added a little over 19,000 employees in
the year19.
 TCS has also increased its hiring targets to 75,000 from 60,00013 and integrated 90,182 employees
across the globe in FY 2015-16. This is the highest gross addition done by the Company during
any year.
 The Company improved its talent retention globally which is reflected in the attrition dropping
from 14.4% in the year 2010-11 to 12.2% in the year 2011-12. The annual employee satisfaction
survey showed an increase in employee engagement score.
 Various initiatives have delivered the desired results as is evident from the low attrition rate of
10.6% achieved during year 2012-13, a benchmark in the industry.
 In FY 16, the Company’s attrition rate including BPS increases to 15.5% (Highest in last five
years)
 TCS is one of the largest employers of women in the world with women constituting 33.8%
(consolidated) of TCS’ workforce as on March 31,2016 and 33% in FY15 .Women constitute
32.7% of the Company’s workforce as on March 31, 2014, compared to 32.4% as on March 31,
2013 and 31.60% as on March 31, 2012

Human Resource Strategies and Initiatives

After analyzing the annual reports from 2011-12 to 2015-16, some of the HR Strategies and
Initiatives of the Company are as follows:

HR Area Strategies and Initiatives

Talent  The recruitment strategy of TCS helps create a workforce with diverse culture and
Acquisition thinking across all levels
 “Campus Commune” (unique student engagement portal) forum is used
extensively for talent spotting through various competitions like Codevita,,
Mobeel and Testimony.
 Company invests in academic interface programme (AIP) initiatives to improve
employability of students as per industry requirements.
Learning &  Individual and organizational capability building remained one of the strategic
Development focus areas.
 In the year 2015-16 the Company invested in developing new Digital Learning
Platform (DLP) and imparted 349,000 competencies in digital technologies to
over 120,000 employees.
 A combination of learning platform (iON), digital interactive class rooms
(iQlass), virtual labs and competency tracking platform (iEvolve), a specialized
developmental executive education program for women in mid-management
‘iEXCEL’are offered to facilitate learning opportunities for employees
worldwide
 ”Career Hub” platform is provided to facilitate employee’s career development.
4
Compensation  In FY15 ,TCS celebrated 10th anniversary of its listing on the Indian stock
markets & gave out a hefty Rs 12,750 crore payout as dividends to its
shareholders
 The company announced a special one-time bonus of 2,627.91crore for all
TCSers with over one year of service in appreciation of their efforts in the year
2014-15.
 TCS increased notice period from one month to three months w.e.f March 1, 2016
to deal with attrition16.
Health &  TCS’ commitment to provide a healthy and safe work environment is articulated
Safety in the organization’s Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Policy.
 Employee engagement programs like Fit4Life and Purpose 4Life to create
awareness about health and fitness as well as to enable employees to engage with
the community are a part of company’s HR health policy.
 TCS’ CEO launched the Safety First Initiative in May 2014 to make safety a
part of every employee’s way of life.

Employee  Employees are offered confidential counselling sessions through 24X7

Engagement ‘Employee Assistance Programme’ launched during fiscal 2012 which would
and Retention help them cope more effectively with stress.
 The ‘Maitree’ platform provides opportunities to employees to explore their
hobbies and volunteer for social causes.
 Company conduct annual global employee satisfaction and engagement survey
‘PULSE’ to gain necessary insight into the needs of the diverse workforce.
Employee’s inputs helped the Company design required interventions to enhance
the level of employee engagement.
 The Company recognized both team and individual performance, as well as
reward employee behavior in line with the organizational values through in-house
recognition portal ‘GEMS‘
Awards &  Company has been recognised and rewarded by peers and stakeholders. TCS was
Recognition rated as the world’s most powerful brand in IT Services and also retained its
position as the fastest growing brand within its industry over the last 6 years.
 The Company has been certified as the Global Top Employer by Top Employers
Institute during FY 2015-16. This award is in recognition of the Company’s talent
strategy, workforce planning, on-boarding, and learning & development,
performance management, leadership development, career & succession
management, compensation & benefits as well as Company culture.
 2015-16 : Golden Peacock National Training Award.
 TCS won the 21st ‘Global HR Excellence Awards 2013’ in the category
‘outstanding contribution to the cause of education’, for the second consecutive
time.
 2012-13: Awarded “Company of the Year” by Business Standard
 2011-12: TCS received the prestigious Most Admired Knowledge Enterprise
(MAKE) award for the 7th time in India and Asia.

Remarks

TCS plans online learning and invest in digital technology. Various initiatives towards health and
safety and other non-work related employee engagement programs creates a highly engaged place to
work. Through mature talent management and talent engagement processes the Company has created
a performance driven environment where innovation is encouraged, performance is recognized and
employees are motivated to realize their potential. Above stated initiatives and HR interventions

5
illustrates that the Company focus on talent engagement, career progression, benchmarked
compensation & benefits to attract and retain the best talent.

INFOSYS
Infosys is one of the leading providers of business consulting, technology, engineering and
outsourcing services .Company’s last five years (2011-12 to 2015-16) published Annual Reports were
analyzed. We found increasing annual attrition figures which is mentioned in Table 2.

Table 2 Human Resource Indicators

Year → 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 Q1 Q2
Indicators ↓ FY 17 FY17
Total Headcount 1,49,994 1,56,688 1,64,405 1,76,187 1,94,044 1,97,050 1,99,829
Gross Addition 45,605 37,036 39,985 53,386 52,545 13,268 12,717
Attrition 26,431 30,342 36,268 37,604 34,688 10,262 9,938
Net Addition 19,174 6,694 3,717 15,782 17,857 3,006 2,779
Attrition (%) 14.7 16.3 18.7 18.9 13.6 15.8 15.7
Women 52,152 53,695 55,172 61,824 69,116 N.A N.A
Employees

Graph 2 Infosys Attrition

We found an upward annual attrition trend which is clearly shown in Graph 2

Human Resource Trends:

 Infosys has almost two lakh total employees at the end of September, 2016 quarter.
 Infosys, India’s second largest IT service company is also battling high attrition and has recorded a
continuous rise in attrition from FY 11 to FY 15.
 Economic Times (ET) reported that Infosys' attrition rate was 22.3% on a consolidated basis and
managed to arrest 18.9% on a standalone basis for the year ended March 2015.
 Company enjoyed a steep decline in attrition to 13.6% in FY 16 compared to where they were
one year ago due to numerous HR measures and employee-friendly initiatives.
 Attrition rate in IT major Infosys Ltd has climbed up again in April-June quarter of fiscal 2016-17
to 15.8% and 21.0% on consolidated basis after declining over the quarters.
6
Human Resource Strategies and Initiatives

After analyzing the annual reports from 2011-12 to 2015-16, some of the HR Strategies and
Initiatives of the Company are as follows:

HR Area Strategies and Initiatives

Talent  Corporate strategy focuses on both renew and new and its implementation.
Acquisition Renewal involves the re-thinking of existing business systems and new
elements involve new ways of engaging with, and understanding customers
and employees.
 To reduce the employability gap through ‘Campus Connect’, ‘Spark’,
company work closely with educational institutions for curriculum
design, content creation, faculty development and training, to impart
industry-relevant skills and knowledge to engineering students in college.
Learning &  Education, Training & Assessment (ETA) group offers industry-
Development benchmarked learning programs to ensure talent enablement.
 Infosys took big steps in the financial year 2016 by bringing a combination
of automation and innovation, powered by education.
 Infosys initiated to train 40 per cent of its workforce, 80,000+ employees,
in design thinking in the year 2015-16.
 ‘iCount’, the renewed performance management system was introduced
during FY16.
 New programs such as cloud programming & mobile application
development were introduced during fiscal 2012.

Compensation  Professionals receive competitive salaries and benefits based on

performance linked compensation program.
 In FY15, Infosys offered 100% bonus to its employees and doled out 3000
iPhones to best performers, in order to stem attrition5
 Infosys brings back employee stock option in FY 16 nearly after a decade
to bring down rising attrition10 ESOP shares are used as a corporate
strategy to boost workers' interest in the company's performance.
Health &Safety  Health, Safety & Environmental Management System (HSEMS) is designed
to provide a secure working environment.
 Health, assessment & lifestyle enrichment (HALE) focuses on an
employee’s health, safety, emotional wellness, quality of life & work
environment.
 Anti-Sexual Harassment Initiative (ASHI) framework has been
institutionalized to foster a positive workplace environment
 Internal Complaint Committee (ICC) is constituted to address sexual
harassment complaints at workplace.

Employee  In 2016 ‘Optiwise’ is launched which invites employees to share their ideas.
Engagement and  Employee’s feedback was gathered through annual employee engagement
Retention survey (LITMUS 2015) to identify tracks to be actionized.
 An innovative program ‘Zero Bench ’was launched in july15, to
productively engage employees.
 Company’s dress code was made friendlier in 2015-16.

Awards  Won Global Most Admired Knowledge Award (MAKE) for the 11th time,
Asian MAKE for the 13th time and Indian MAKE for the 11th time in
7
 &Recognition 2015-16
 InStep, global internship program won the National Council for Workshop
(NCWE) award in 2013-14.
 Won Golden Peacock HR Excellence Award 2012

Remarks

Human resources management at Infosys goes beyond the set boundaries of compensation,
performance reviews and development. The annual employee satisfaction survey pointed out where
the biggest opportunities for changes lay. Various positive changes are initiated in HR practices
during the year 2015-16 including those related to travel, claims & reimbursement .Infosys bring
backs ESOP to bring down rising attrition. The measures that were deployed to deepen employee
engagement have begun to show results, with attrition come down to 13.6% in FY16 from previous
year’s 18.9%. But no impact of robust talent fulfillment model of Infosys is seen that operates real
time to cover gaps caused by attrition in FY 155

WIPRO
Wipro Limited is one of the leading information technology, consulting and business process services
company that delivers solutions to enable its clients do business better. Its business comprises of the
IT Services and IT Products segments. Wipro delivers winning business outcomes through its deep
industry experience and a 360 degree view of “Business through Technology.” Company’s last five
years (2011-12 to 2015-16) published Annual Reports were analyzed.

Table 3 Human Resource Indicators

Year → 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 Q1 Q2 FY17
Indicators ↓ FY 17
Total 1,35,920 1,45,812 1,46,053 1,58,217 1,72,912 1,73,863 1,74,238
Headcount
Attrition % 17.6 14.1 15.4 16.5 16.1 16.5 16.6
Women 28.4 30 30.7 30.2 32 N.A N.A
Employees%

Graph 3 Wipro Attrition

We found the annual attrition trend lies in the range of 15% -17% which is clearly shown in Graph 3.

8
Human Resource Trends

 Voluntary attrition stood at 17.6% in FY 12 compared with 22.3% last year.

 The permanent employee strength grew by 7.6% over FY 2012-13. Employee attrition for
2012-13 closed at 14.1%.
 Wipro has managed to keep its attrition level steady at around 16 percent over the past two
years.
 Company enhanced gender diversity with nearly 30% of employees being women.

Human Resource Strategies and Initiatives:

After analyzing the annual reports from 2011-12 to 2015-16, some of the HR Strategies and
Initiatives of the Company are as follows:

HR Area Strategies and Initiatives

Strategy  Wipro’s people strategy is designed to fulfil organizational strategy in the

current and emerging business context and is built on the foundation of
Wipro’s “values”.
 Management’s Approach describes 4 vehicles of Growth for employees: -
Careers, Capability, Leaders growth, Unified Culture of aspirations and
organization’s vision.

Talent  Wipro follows standardized processes for hiring, on boarding and training.
Acquisition Wipro has multiple avenues to find the right talent. Primary employees
sourcing channels include Wipro Careers and Internal job posting. Employee
referrals, Global Campuses, industry tie-ups, Channel-partners, job fairs and
multimedia.
 Their hiring, training, compensation, promotion, role movements and other
key people processes are based on principles of merit and performance alone.

Learning &  Wipro has a corporation wide Code of Business Conduct (COBC) that
Development provides guidelines and direction for responsible business conduct and is
applicable to all business practices and employees.
 Certification on COBC and Diversity and Inclusion is mandatory for all
employees.
 Wipro strengthen its talent pool providing employees with growth and career
enhancement opportunities. Approximately 15,000 employees trained
through an innovative platform called “Future Ready” for building
Awareness on Digital Technologies for all customer-facing roles.
 Over 20,000 employees trained on core digital technologies through Digital
Foundation Academy.
 Over 4000 employees benefitted from a program called Cutting EDGE
program which trained employees on advanced skills for Digital
transformation.
 Your Career Your Choice -Classroom based Training Module for High
Potential women employees is appreciated.
 Company offers employees a chance to study at nation’s engineering and
management college under biggest employee retention program “Notch-up”

9
 Compensation  Wipro provides competitive and innovative compensation packages
comprising of a combination of salary, stock options, pension and health &
disability insurance. They have business segment performance as well as
individual performance linked incentive programs for employees
 Wipro started providing long term incentives by granting restricted stock
units (RSU’s) in 2004 towards long term retention of key talent/ niche skills.
 There is a structured process of formally and objectively evaluating one’s
performance against defined goals & objectives by way of 360-degree
feedback mechanism
 Management decided to provide for up to a 180-days’ notice period, up to
21 days of leave per year in addition to statutory holidays, and an annual
compensation review in FY16.

Health & Safety  Key focus areas under Talent Strategy are Commitment to Human Rights
and Diversity & Inclusion (D&I)
 Gender Equity Initiatives such as Women of Wipro (WoW), Women in
Leadership Mentorship program , celebration of International Women’s day,
WoW Speaker Series’ under the WoW programme are carried out .
 Employee wellness program –Fit for Life
 Awareness and Self Defense sessions conducted across locations for Women
Employees.

Employee  Focus is invested in engaging with employees through “Wipro Meets”.

Engagement and  Analysis of employees’ perception, expectation and feedback, forms a
Retention primary input in designing “Talent management processes”.
 Employee Perception Survey (EPS) “PULSE” is Conducted once in every
2 years.
 Diversity, Team, Wipro Values and Customer Focus continue to be the
top strength areas, while Work Life Balance, Training & Development,
Role/Job and Senior Executive have emerged as top areas of
improvement from 2015-16 EPS.
 Employee Advocacy Group (EAG) of 120+ employee member
representatives to voice ideas regarding improvements in processes and
company policies is and recognized. formed
 A one stop solution for employee queries and clarifications on HR, Payroll
and Transport services WBPO’s Integrated Employee Support Centre (IESC)
is launched in 2013-14.
 24x7 Employee Assistance program (EAP) “Mitr”
 A 24x7 multi lingual hotline and online enabled–Ombuds (Refer Table4)

Awards  Wipro was among the Top 3 in the 2012 Business Today list of Best
&Recognition Companies to work for in India
 Wipro Wins the ‘CIO 100’ 2016 Award for its Digital Platform, my Wipro.
 Wipro received the 'NASSCOM Corporate Award for Excellence in
Diversity and Inclusion 2016', in the category of 'Best Program for
Excellence in Gender Diversity'.
 Women of Wipro mentoring Program has won the prestigious NASSCOM
award for the Best program in Gender Diversity for 2015-2016 in IT/ ITES
companies.
 In 2015-16, Wipro won Asia-Pac award’ in the Workplace Category at
Disability Matters Asia-Pac Conference held at Bangkok.

10
 Table 4 Wipro’s Ombuds Data

Year ↓ Number of Number of

Complaints Cases
Received Taken

2015-16 1,397 1,337

2014-15 1,093 88%

2013-14 787 95%

2012-13 795 98.62%

2011-12 728 92%

Source: Wipro’s annual reports

Remarks

People practices at Wipro are shaped by the Spirit of Wipro values, Code of Business Conduct and
Ethics. Company is proud of its value based culture and align policies and actions around talent
management, wellbeing and Diversity and Inclusion. Wipro’s employee engagement is an inclusive
and empowering platform. Forums such as Wipro Meets, PULSE, EAG, Mitr, and Ombuds are
interactive platforms for sharing information.

COMPARISON OF ATTRITION TRENDS

The second objective of the present study was to compare the IT leading companies on the basis of
their attrition trend. The attrition trend percentage is clearly shown in table 5. After comparing their
attrition trend and its average, we found that:

Table 5 Attrition Trend Percentage

Years → 2010- 2011- 2012- 2013- 2014- 2015- Average Q1 Q2

11 12 13 14 15 16 FY17 FY17
Company↓

TCS 14.4 12.2 ↓ 10.6 ↓ 11.3 ↑ 14.9 ↑ 15.5 ↑ 12.9 13.6 ↓ 12.9 ↓

Infosys 17.0 14.7 ↓ 16.3 ↑ 18.7 ↑ 18.9 ↑ 13.6 ↓ 16.44 15.8 ↑ 15.7 ↓

Wipro 22.7 17.6 ↓ 14.1 ↓ 15.4 ↑ 16.5 ↑ 16.1 ↓ 15.94 16.5 ↑ 16.6 ↑

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 Graph 4 ↓ Graph 5 →

 Attrition rates at 19-20% are becoming a norm7.India’s top three IT companies are struggling with
high attrition rates15.
 Between Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Wipro and Infosys, the three bigwigs of the Indian IT
space, it seems that the employees are jumping the ship at a volatile rate.
 TCS enjoyed lowest attrition rate of 10.6% in FY 13, a benchmark in industry but since then it has
been rising over the years. At the end of FY16 it has touched 15.5% highest in five years.
 Infosys has shown an upward trend of attrition on consistent basis from FY 11 to FY 15. Company
recorded one of the highest attrition rates in the Indian IT industry at 18.9% in FY15. No impact of
robust talent fulfilment model of Infosys is seen that operates real time to cover gaps caused by
attrition.
 In the case of Wipro (third largest in the sector), the attrition rate is mostly flat around 16 per cent4
 In the year 2014-15, TCS and Infosys have relied on bonuses and special rewards to its employees
and the effects of those in stemming attrition are realised in case of Infosys only but could not
achieved for TCS.
 Comparatively TCS has enjoyed lower attrition rates in previous years but numbers took an
interesting turn in FY16.
 TCS has been struggling with its rising employee attrition rate 15.5% in FY 16, while its closest
competitors Infosys, Wipro had managed to bring it down at 13.6% and 16.1% respectively.
 Infosys did a commendable job in FY16. Infosys has seen a great improvement in employee
satisfaction, as measured by a drastic drop in its attrition rate, in the FY16.21
 Various initiatives and hefty bonuses tempered attrition to 13.6 %( lowest) but is still battling high
attrition.
 Tata Consultancy Services remain the industry benchmark for talent retention. TCS has
beaten Infosys and Wipro, registering lowest average in attrition for five years. The
Company’s average attrition rate has come as 12.9%, as compared to 15.92% for Wipro and
highest for Infosys as 16.44%.

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 TCS has beaten Infosys and Wipro in attrition rates in June 2016 quarter. TCS registered a fall in
attrition whereas, Infosys and Wipro have recorded a rise in attrition17.
 Employee attrition at TCS and Infosys moves in opposite direction in Q1 FY17. It had peaked at
an all-time high of 21.0 per cent on consolidated basis in the April-June quarter of FY17 after
declining over the quarters. Management didn't have a good explanation for the attrition spike to
21 per cent, quarterly annualized in FY 17,which is two times that of TCS!14

Over the years, an upward trend in employee attrition has been observed in all three leading
companies. The reasons for this high attrition rate in Indian IT are many. As per Infosys and Wipro,
the industry see seasonal increases in attrition usually due to employees opting for higher education or
an increase in opportunities arising out of industry growth. Over a period of time, the numbers tend to
average out. TCS also agrees that the reasons for high attrition rate is the buoyant job market. "Job
opportunities in the market are good”. The sector believes that most of the hiring is taking place
laterally, i.e. within services industry as the prospects in the sector are growing21. Most people who
leave usually join another services organization. Moreover, first quarter attrition figures are usually
higher than other quarters as many leaves after annual appraisals and for higher education. Nowadays
IT firms prefer third-party engagements, for optimal utilization of human resources. The higher
attrition trends reflects companies’ intention to go for more contractual employees4.

Concluding Remarks
All three leading IT companies are found moving in same direction in terms of HR management.
Every year, companies increase their headcount and focus on skill development initiatives to draw
rightly skilled talent and bridge employability gap. High churn out rate of its employees force them to
spend on employee retention through innovative initiatives and incentives including hefty bonuses.
Organizations attempted to tackle the problem of attrition as per identified determinants in their own
ways. To battle attrition TCS plans for online learning and focus on talent engagement. A number of
positive changes are initiated by Infosys based on employees’ inputs through ‘Optiwise’ launched in
FY16. Wipro provides strong employee engagement platform through PULSE, EAG, Mitr and
Ombuds process. Though they are able to control attrition within limits but despite all efforts,
reducing attrition rate is certainly a challenge.

The growing realization of the importance of people as a source of competitive advantage calls for the
strategic management of human resources. On the basis of the findings of the study we suggest that
companies need to look at the employee’s entire lifecycle, to ensure timely interventions and should
be committed to provide a progressive workplace to workforce. Initiatives centered on skill
development will definitely pay to the company as proved in case of Infosys. Employee engagement
platforms help in improving employee’s overall well-being, bonding within the organization and
promoting work-life balance, thereby, increasing employee retention- an example is set by TCS and
Wipro. Employee expectations have also gone up so measures and initiatives taken by the company
should be more consistent. Moreover, with the passage of the Maternity Benefit Amendment Bill
2016 which has increased paid maternity leave to 26 weeks from 12 weeks, experts believe this will
bring down attrition levels9. Companies should strictly follow Maternity Benefit Amendment Bill,
2016 to ensure retention of women employees in the workforce.

After analyzing the results we concluded that comparatively TCS is able to attract, integrate, develop
and retain the best talent to some extent which deliver business growth and set an example for others
to follow. Companies need to relook how to handle the issue of employee attrition and retention.
Long term retention requires a structured and inclusive approach.

13
Scope of further study
The present research is limited to a few aspects. Firstly, only top three leading IT companies are
considered to study the attrition trend and their present HR strategies and initiatives. Moreover period
under study is also limited to five years which can be extended. However, if more companies and
lengthy period are taken into consideration, a better result can be attained.

Further research can be conducted by adding a couple of facets to it. The relationship between
acquisition and attrition can be identified to measure its impact on company’s hiring intentions and
employment opportunities in IT sector. BPO industry alone is contributing to high attrition in IT
industry which can be explored separately. Similar study can also be done in sectors like hospitality,
infrastructure, retail, education etc. where attrition has become a common problem.

References
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Raina, D, Anupama (2006), “Management of Call Centers- Boredom, Employee Attrition and
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Jeswani, Saket & Souren, Sarkar.(2008), “Integrating Talent Engagement as a Strategy to High
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Ramiya, Bhas (2008), “Money Matters”, Times Assent-A Supplement of The Times of India, 28th
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