Looking for a change?

We do here a lot about the attrition. Particularly in software industry.

What is attrition?

Dictionary.com says as "A gradual reduction in work force without firing of personnel, as when workers resign or retire and are not replaced."

In Dilbert’s words –

Below are the figures of attrition in one Quarter of this year.

Satyam - 18%

i-flex - 19%

HCL - 14%

Wipro -17%

Infosys - 12.4%

Mindtree – 12%

Dr Reddy's – 16%

Sapient – 18%

Covansys - 18.81% and an average of 16% attrition in IT. (Source)

Is the attrition rate is high in only software industry?

I have to say sorry because if you see the figures below for other fields like banking, insurance, HR etc. you will realize that the software is doing much better than some of these industries.

Insurance sector overall attrition 25-30% (Source).

Banking sector overall attrition - 10-15% (Source)

HR&Finance Executives - 20% (Source)

Why do a software professional look out from the current employer?

I could give you some reasons which I felt before in my carrier, I am not sure how many people agree with me but these are my feelings.

Any software professional looks for the below things

- Kind of Work

o Most people are curious about the work they are going to get in the new company. This also involves the technologies, project types whether a maintenance, support or a development project. But here they are not going to get the 100% whatever they are looking for as I experienced many times.

- Compensation

o Here many people are strict about their remuneration as they would be expecting industry standard 30%hike from the current remuneration. Here they might get whatever they expected but still they will come to know that it is not going to suffice their needs with in a month or two.

- Work Environment

o Some of the people think about the environment and they go for Branded companies with a CMM level5 tag on them. This might be easy to get these days as we do have enough number of level 5 companies as a choice.

- Facilities

o Some people think about this thing too as they don’t want to drive and want a company pick and drop and subsidized food in the canteen etc will save their money, secure them from pollution. Most of the companies are providing them too to attract these kind of people.

- On-site opportunity

o Even I noticed people do ask about their onsite chances if they get into this company, but this is where the big companies (HR) play with the people. They always say that we do have lot of onsite opportunities for all experienced candidates but once you join the company you will not even meet that HR again, I was even didn’t see any HR in my 2 yrs the HR I met at the time of joining. Whom will you ask that they have promised an onsite to you?

In my experience I noticed most of the professionals look at the above points before they take offers or join the Employer.

Of course you might have thought about the only above points before you moved from your previous employer but I would suggest the people to think about the below points too as they matter a lot for your future.

- HR policies

o These are the policies you might get benefited of in long term like contribution of the Employee PF. I know that many companies collect their share of 12.5% also from the employee. Even some companies design the Packages so well to give the employee most benefits. Most of the companies now a days providing Medi claims but still some companies don’t bother about such things. This is definite advantage if you have dependents on you.

- Role offered

o Many people don’t bother about the Role they are going to play in the new job. I mean what responsibilities they are going to handle instead of worrying about the type of project (Maintenance, development or Support). This you would need to check if you have definite long term goals and where you want to see yourself in the next future.

- Carrier Growth

o The growth of your carrier is proportional to your manager’s growth.

Let’s say you are a fresh developer or QA joined in a company and want to become a Team Lead. What do you think the ideal number of years you have to spend in that company? I know that there is no definite answer for it, but approximately 3-4 yrs as we all know. Provided you have done lot of hard work and have good relationship with your manager. If your lead gets a promotion as manager in 6 months there is a fair chance for you to become a Lead. I hope now understand my first statement now. So, you have to be very careful about this point when you are switching your job.

- Management

o You also need to know about the management of the company before you get into it, which will give you idea about the carrier growth you can expect for that company. If possible try to talk to the higher level managers before you move in as it will give you a vision about that company and you can predict some points, may show you the path you are looking for.

I hope this little rant helped you recalibrate your path to success and see through the dark fog that's been put in front of you.