While tangible impacts like revenue loss can be measured and reduced through effective attrition planning and forecasting, it is the intangibles that have long-term implications in areas like quality of deliverables, opportunity loss and competitiveness loss, all of which could lead to customer dissatisfaction.

To stem attrition, companies are resorting to strategies like offering tangible rewards, high-quality work content, growth prospects and opportunities for learning and development.

Pune-based Zensar technologies has implemented innovative HR practices like establishing a ‘vision community’, which consists of a group of specially-screened company employees who have an ability to think and strategise. Even the junior-most employee has a say in the company’s growth, as the membership to the community is devoid of any prerequisites, except for the ability to think big.

The company also has ‘good to great’ programmes that include lectures, seminars and other initiatives to align individual goals to organisational goals. With such initiatives, the company has managed to keep attrition at around 20 per cent, against an industry average of 30 per cent.

“We are focusing more on honing our recruitment process to filter the not-so-good fits than we are on churn. This brings down attrition at the core team or critical talent level,” explains Shebu Raphael, head-human capital at Marlabs Inc, a provider of technology services and solutions.

Some companies like Summit HR Worldwide, a recruitment process outsourcing firm, are offering ‘managed services’ that not only help companies find the right talent, but retain it too. “Recruitment agencies often place an employee in one organisation and then shift him to another to rev up their own bottomlines. We offer a year-long guarantee on the employees we place with our clients,” says Ranjan Sinha, chairman and CEO of the company.

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