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Chitra Phadnis

BANGALORE, Dec. 23

THE HR woes of the ITES industry, which has an unenviable average attrition rate of 26 per cent, has only become worse with the entry of new players in the field. Companies are now losing employees to competitors who are paying more.

AOL, which has taken up 80,000 sq.ft. space in ITPL, has been maintaining a very low profile about its activities. Industry sources say that the company was recruiting heavily till last month. AOL has reportedly been hiring large numbers and offering higher salaries, taking people away from other ITES players.

In ITPL alone, there are six players in the space, with AOL and First American being the latest. It was the danger of "poaching", for want of a better term, which led the industry to form an HR association a year and a half ago.

"We had an informal understanding that we would not touch one another's people," said Mr Achar, AVP, HR, FirstRing, who also initiated the association.

However, the 25-30 companies in Bangalore are not all members. Captive call centre companies such as Dell and AOL have stayed away from the association, which is made up mainly of third party service providers. Even the ones who joined initially lost interest. Most of them "nodded their heads" in agreement to the non-poaching clause, but later gave in to pressure and hired people from rivals, Mr Achar said.

In the last one year, FirstRing lost 50 out of 2,000 employees to other companies, according to him. 24x7 reported a smaller loss. According to the Director (Quality), Mr T.S. Hariharan, the company saw six people who were "not very critical" leave. "I would not use the word poaching, because it is not a case of people going after one company in particular," said Mr Hariharan.

It is not the loss of agents, which hurts them, though companies invest in each one of them, spending time and money to train them. It is the flight of middle level management with some experience that disturbs the companies. "It was bound to happen," Mr Hariharan said.

There is a lacuna in the industry as far as experienced programme managers are concerned, he said. "It is part of the game, people move to big names and big brands and better salaries," Mr Achar said.

In an industry that is largely made up of the very young people, there is a high manpower turnover, people are constantly leaving either to pursue higher studies, for health reasons and to get out working night shifts. The crowd is also immature enough to quit because of "My-friend-left-so-I-am-leaving" syndrome, said Mr Achar.

An equally large number of jobs get terminated because of indiscipline, not reporting for work, going away on long leave, and so on, he said. Attrition has still not reached US levels of 150-300 per cent and the industry is still attractive because of its "hitech" association, say industry sources.

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