The Hindu Business Line : To hop or not to hop...

Tech workers given to job-hopping, pause in your stride. Think whether the switch is motivated by whim or wisdom, because IT companies are now looking for the ‘stability’ factor.

“Those who change jobs too often are a big risk. We won’t hire such a person.”

K. Ananthan

Make sure the move makes sense.

K Bharat Kumar

Rolling stones gather no moss. If you are 60 years or older and have spent all your life with one, or a handful, of organisations, the following explanation that Wikipedia.com offers would please you:

“Often credited to the Sententiae of Publilius Syrus, the Latin proverb roughly translates as: People always moving, with no roots in one place, avoid responsibilities and cares.”

Strangely, the same proverb, in its English form, would sound as complimentary to you if you are only around 35 years of age, and have changed five or more IT jobs since you began your career. After all, who wants extra baggage in the form of moss?

So, what was valued in a candidate has changed over time.

Funnily enough, it is changing again. Guess what? The IT industry, where employment capacity is slowly inching towards two million, and which has long indulged and pampered feet-happy job-hoppers, is now looking for the ‘stability’ factor.

Small companies are now finding it profitable to evaluate the tendency of candidates to move jobs quickly. They say that it is the companies’ natural reaction to try and save on training and productivity costs while the appreciating rupee is chewing off their profit margins a bit, not to talk of a possible slowdown in the US.

Evaluation metrics

iGate Global Solutions says it has brought in an evaluation element in hiring called ‘stability’. Says Dr Srinivas Kandula, “As per this metric, we will be reluctant to hire an experienced candidate who has changed jobs (on an average) more than once in three years.”

iGate has had this ‘Stability Evaluation Factor’ in hiring for about six months now. And this has clearly had a positive impact on attrition, he says. And sure enough, in the last six months, attrition rates (that is, the number of annual exits per 100 employees) have come down from around 20 per cent to 16.5 per cent.

Shiva Ramani, Co-Founder and CEO, Cybernet-SlashSupport (CSS) agrees with Dr Kandula vehemently. He too calls this new metric the ‘Stability Factor’. He even has different metrics for various experience levels.

Rule One: Prospective employees with five or less years of experience should not have changed three jobs.

Rule Two: Those with below 10 years experience should not have changed more than four jobs.

Says Ramani, “We have adopted this ‘stability factor’ as an evaluation metric in our hiring process over the last 12 months or so. While the joining ratios have been coming down during this period, we believe that this is better as we are now getting a better set of people, i.e. those with the right attitude.”

‘A big risk’

Infosys is mighty glad that the industry is waking up to the intensity of the problem. Sounding happy over the phone, T.V. Mohandas Pai, Director-Human Resources, Infosys Technologies, says, “Those who change jobs too often are a big risk. We won’t hire such a person. We are happy that the industry is looking at the issue seriously. We should all ensure that such job-hopping trends are not encouraged.”

Just how often is ‘too’ often? Pai feels, “In the IT industry, changing jobs after a period ranging from two to four years is all right. If someone has moved jobs due to changes in location or family/medical emergency, then that should be taken into account. But we do not look favourably at someone who has moved for frivolous reasons.” On average he says, if someone has held five jobs in about 15 years, then that is good. A candidate should have spent at least two to two-and-a-half years in each job, is his take.

He says Infosys has been using this measurement against prospects for several years now. But from now on, he says, “We will set tougher norms. For instance, we will see how long they have lasted in the last two jobs; what their performance ratings there have been; and the like.”

Wipro’s Pradeep Bahirwani, vice-president, strategic sourcing, says that when Wipro receives a resume, the first thing it looks for is the employment history. Among other issues, quick job changes are frowned upon. He says, “If there is a jump every year or even 1.5 or 2 per year, we don’t even consider the candidate. But if there were quick job-hops early in the career followed by a period of stability, we then speak to the candidate and ask for reasons for the changes.” He feels it is important to have a balanced view.

Favouring stability

Others in the industry aren’t as vehement yet or do not yet have metrics to measure ‘stability’. But their voices are in unison in favour of stability.

Says Mukund Menon, Global Head Talent Acquisition, Satyam Computer Services, “It is a general phenomenon that good performers are typically long-term players and it takes a minimum of one-two years for someone to contribute substantially in a team or an organisation. Hence it is important for us to look for those attributes and also the value they would bring to the table from their current organisation.”

What constitutes a ‘good’ player? Says Menon, “In our knowledge industry, the depth of talent and skill is key for an individual to perform and it is important that they also have the right soft skills such as good communication, articulation skills and longevity with good team skills.”

However, Satyam does not yet have a metric or policy that rules out candidates who have changed a certain number of jobs or more, in a time period.

HCL Technologies is even more flexible. It feels that it is a tendency of the interview panel to look at candidates unfavourably in case he/she has jumped too many jobs. But there is no stated policy to not hire such candidates for the company. Says Ravi Shankar B, Global Head, Talent Management Group, HCL Technologies, “It is left to the potential boss of that candidate to make a decision as to hire or not.”

Filtering mechanism

How do other smaller companies look at this issue? First, Polaris’ Soma Sajeevan T K, executive vice-president and global head — human resources, feels that one cannot call Polaris a ‘small’ company. “We have a talent strength of 10,000 employees and cannot be looked at as a small company.”

Point made and taken, he says, “In the mid- to senior management positions or for niche roles where supply is tight, we are open to welcoming professionals who have moved jobs and have an average tenure of three to four years in a role.”

In his view, they would carry (best) practices from two or more organisations and that would “enhance our value proposition.”

Also, “there is no question of holding anything against an individual who has moved jobs. While people join ‘organisations’, they leave supervisors. Cultural fit today is also playing a pivotal role.”

Others such as MindTree Consulting, Cognizant and Hexaware say that they have always had a filtering mechanism to keep those frivolous job-hoppers out. MindTree’s President and CEO for IT services, Krishnakumar Natarajan does not see any changes in his company’s recruiting approach because of Rupee appreciation. He says, “We have always avoided recruiting people whom we see as rolling stones. Anyone who has merely been changing jobs for the sake of gaining additional compensation or gaining short-term advantage has been filtered in our recruitment process.”

Bhaskar Das, Vice-President, Human Resources, Cognizant, agrees. “The time spent in one company has to be placed in context and analysed, instead of applying a general rule. We focus on the reasons for such a move rather than reject a candidate based on a policy.” He feels that given the right environment and the opportunity to integrate quickly, employees do tend to stay longer.

8 jobs in 10 years?

eWorld asked all of these players whether, for example, they would recruit someone who has changed some eight jobs in 10 years and all of them seemed properly horrified at the thought. As Hexaware’s Deependra L. Chumble, Chief People Officer, puts it: his company does look kindly on employees who have changed jobs due to business exigencies but at the same time, “we do not encourage recruiting such people who have changed eight jobs in 10 years and these are a part of our recruitment guidelines.”

bharatk@thehindu.co.in

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