The Hindu Business Line : Missing the middle

"It is very easy to find candidates with more than 14 years and less than four years of experience, but hiring middle managers with relevant experience can be quite a challenge."

Food for thought. - BIJOY GHOSH

Too many foot soldiers, not enough commanders', reads the sub-title of a JP Morgan report that was released earlier this year. This was in reference to Infosys' supposed middle management crisis.

"We believe that Infosys' policy of hiring more fresh graduates than competitors has led to delivery issues," said the report, and, "near-term growth could remain constrained, and that may frustrate those looking for earnings momentum." But is it an exclusively Infosys problem? Most IT companies that eWorld spoke to said that at the middle-management level, there are several companies vying for a limited pool of talent, which could lead to problems.

Sample this: Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys each want to add 50 per cent of their current manpower in the coming twelve months. (See table.) And, a significant chunk of that would be freshers recruited directly from colleges. Given such an addition of fresh recruits, a healthy middle management layer would prove invaluable.

Top guys tackle problem

The top IT companies have been quick to take measures to check the problem. HCL Technologies has introduced `Talent Transformation', an initiative that looks to provide training with a slight paradigm shift. Anand Pillai, Head of Talent Transformation and Intrapreneurship Development, HCL Technologies, explains that the company had to move from a demand-based to a competency-based training system.

"Our middle managers have to build core competencies across the organisation and across functions. And the best way to do this is to allow them to learn from people who have been through it, rather than trainers." He explains that Vineet Nayarand Shiv Nadar are in his faculty, which helps managers build a fund of practical knowledge. Similarly, TCS has its Leadership Development Programme, piloted in Chennai, which involves middle managers opting for a key area, after which senior professionals in the chosen area counsel them. They are then classified into various bands of expertise.

Moreover, as S. Padmanabhan, Executive Vice-President and Global Head, Human Resources, TCS, explains, since the company didn't roll back any of the campus offers in the years of recession, this has resulted in a good and strong middle management which forms about 18 per cent of the workforce, from Assistant Consultant through to Senior Consultant.

`Pressure on mid-size players'

But as Rajiv Krishnan Chief Executive Officer of Ma Foi Consulting Solutions, points out, with the top IT companies recruiting heavily in the middle layer to make up for the lack of supervisory bandwidth, `it is the midsize companies that really feel the pressure'. It is natural for people go after brands, he says.Fred Bertman, Managing Director, ANZ Information Technology Ltd, Australia-based ANZ bank's captive centre based in Bangalore, is quick to agree.

"The chief danger for us comes from banks with large-scale operations in the country - Citibank, ABN AMRO and so on. In fact, two people in the top management level at ANZ were recently offered 50 per cent and 30 per cent increase on current salary," he says.Intelenet Global Services has middle management strength of about 10 to 12 per cent of the total workforce, according to Manuel D'Souza, Vice-President, HR. And though the company offers incentives, development programmes and projects that help build up skills, and stock options (the company has in the past made sure that as much as 35 per cent of the team leaders get ESOPs), he admits that, "It takes time to build middle managers... It is very easy to find candidates with more than 14 years and less than four years of experience, but hiring middle managers with relevant experience can be quite a challenge."

A company having two teams to chase talent at these two - very different - levels exemplifies this. Flextronics Software Systems, which has a middle management strength of 12 per cent, actually has two separate teams within the recruitment function area to acquire talent at the two levels. Indrajit Sen, Director - Recruitment, Flextronics, says taking experienced people at the middle management level laterally is a constant process and care is taken to take on board the best in class.

Asked if clients have expressed concern over the lack of people in positions of responsibility in a given project, he says, "Yes they do express concern — most clients want senior people on a project but that does not always go along, we try to save the cost and put more junior people on project."

ITES players

The challenge is slightly different for IT-enabled services (ITES) companies, but the issue exists nevertheless. Prashant Chawla, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer, Integreon, a company that offers BPO as well as KPO (knowledge process outsourcing) solutions such as legal process outsourcing, says the industry is growing at the rate of 30 per cent, mature processes are in place, but the talent pool at the middle management level is just not matching this growth.

"See, I myself run a fantastic training programme, but can only teach them subjects that are logical — you can't teach them experience," he says. Some of the issues, such as time management, how to communicate, may be taught, but other skills, such as how to deal with the people who report to you, how to deal with complex situations, or effectively interact with senior management, that's where the gap is, he says. Asked how Integreon is coping with the problem, he says bluntly, "We are really affected." He explains that IT processes are transferable skills — software, java, how to manage project, these can be taken care of regardless of the platform. In a KPO, processes are different, and the learning period is consequently longer. The best option is to run a robust training programme.

Currently, about 75 to 80 people in Integreon (total workforce of 1,000) belong to the middle management category, and the company hopes to increase this to about 125 in the next year.

However, there are some industry players who do not seem to be affected by this problem. Kalpana Jaishankar, Vice-President, Human Resources and People Development, Patni Software Solutions, says, "We not really experiencing too many problems — we have around 20 to 25 per cent in middle management." Asked if she thinks there is a crisis, in the industry in general, she says the company has not noticed anything significant. "I'm sorry, I don't seem to be helping your story too much," she laughs.

abhinav@thehindu.co.in

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