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Anjali Prayag

BANGALORE, Dec. 26

``WE believe people are our key assets and we do not let them go very easily,'' says Mr Shabbir Merchant, Head, Human Resources, Wipro Infotech.

And to prove this point he gives the statistics: In the last six months under the operation reverse swing programme, the company has mapped several of its ex-employees and has already re-inducted 12 of them.

Every few months, Wipro undertakes a process of shortlisting key talent that has left the company. Then a few people from Wipro closely associated with these ex-employees (peers, subordinates, supervisors) are identified and asked to keep track of them. It's a kind of friendly monitoring with New Year and birthday greetings thrown in.

And at the appropriate time, i.e., when the employees are on slightly shaky ground in their current jobs, Wipro strikes with an offer they cannot resist and so, they are back in the fold, according to Mr Merchant.

Talking about the effectiveness of another employee-oriented practise, the Employee Referral Programme, Mr Merchant says, ``we find that the quality of candidates referred by our employees is much better than what the consultants give us.''

Called the `Refer a Pal' programme, the success ratio of employment when employees refer is 1:4 (i.e. one out of every four candidates referred by the employee gets chosen) while that of the consultant is 1:10.

Wipro Infotech, which was awarded the People's CMM Level 5, Version 2 last year, shapes its employees' career through the Lifecycle Leadership Programs. This programme has training modules for all levels of employees from the new entrants to the Presidents.

The entire career lifecycle of the Wiproiite is covered in this programme. For the newcomers, it's the entry level, for the first time managers, it's the new leaders' programme, for the managers' manager, it's the Wipro Leaders' programme, for the general managers, it's the business leadership programme and for the CEOs and the Presidents, it's the strategic leadership programme.

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