Friday, October 16, 2015

The war to attract and retain talent With New Age companies offering fatter pay packets, established organisations are forced to review their staff engagement and reward programmes

As New Age firms dole out fatter salaries to attract the most skilled employees, companies need to strengthen their work environment, increase their staff engagement and reward policies, to hold on to talent. A war of talent is raging between the New Age companies and established organisations. These startups are not only changing the placements scenario in top B-schools, they are also hiring from leading banks and consulting firms by offering fatter pay checks. “Well-funded organisations are offering better salaries and also getting good talent. This is happening in all the New Age industries including e-commerce,” Amit Sinha, VP – business planning and people, of mobile commerce firm Paytm. “The toughest challenge facing most new technology companies these days isn’t getting funded — it’s hiring the best, most skilled employees,” Anjli Jain, founder of mobile app platform Kryptos Mobile, said and added that aggressive venture capital funded IT/ITES startups like Ola and Flipkart were offering fatter salaries, stock options and unique perks to lure and retain the best talent in India. This trend which is happening in the e-commerce and tech startup sector, is not limited to this space only and had also happened in aviation, telecom, insurance, retail and social sector as well a few years ago. “There is definitely an increase in the average salary offered to the employees. As per my understanding, there has been around 30 to 40 per cent increase in average salary. And the biggest reason for this is the aggressive goals of the funded startups combined with the availability of funds,” Aristotle Consultancy co-founder Deepak Dhamija said.
Executive recruitment firm Hunt Partners’ managing partner Suresh Raina said: “Meaning, Engagement and Compensation are the three essentials to any corporate role and compensation has always been used as a lever by firms to attract talent.” According to a research conducted by global management consultancy Hay Group, 82 per cent of startups surveyed pay more than the market median to their employees. According to Rituparna Chakraborty, president, Indian Staffing Federation, “all well-funded organisations do not put their financial resources to pay fatter salaries. However, most New Age sectors would definitely offer lucrative compensation to attract talents.” Meanwhile, in order to contain attrition because of this factor, organisations should stick to basics like competitive pay, good working environment, providing good opportunities for professional growth, and offer lifestyle perks, work-from-home benefits, better facilities. “Clear vision, actual work on the ground, team bonding and organisational accountability play very significant roles in attracting and retaining talents. These factors along with the best possible remuneration ideally do wonders for any development organisation in retaining professionals,” Smile Foundation co—founder Santanu Mishra said.

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