HR Challenges

HR Challenges in the Indian Software IndustryMeenakshi Gupta, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences
Software is a wealth and job creating industry, which has in just a few years, grown to US $ 1 trillion, employing millions of professionals worldwide. The Indian software industry has burgeoned, showing a nearly 50% compounded annual growth rate over the recent years. Being a knowledge-based industry, a high intellectual capital lends competitive advantage to a firm. Intellectual capital comprises human capital and intellectual assets?the latter being any created bit of knowledge or expertise. With a global explosion in market-opportunities in the IT sector, the shortage of manpower both in numbers and skills is a prime challenge for HR professionals. The related issues are varied indeed: recruitment of world-class workforce and their retention, compensation and career planning, technological obsolescence and employee turnover. This article presents some of the findings of our recent research on the HR challenges posed by the IT sector.
Workforce Retention and Motivation Retention and motivation of personnel are major HR concerns today. People?a Gartner group company specializing in management of human capital in IT organizations?has observed that the average tenure for an IT professional is less than three years. Further, the use of new technologies, the support of learning and training, and a challenging environment ranked higher than competitive pay structures as effective retention practices. Our own recent survey of 1028 software professionals from 14 Indian software companies, showed that while the professional gave importance to personal and cultural job-fit, HR managers believed that the key to retention was salary and career satisfaction. Money was a prime motivator for 'starters', but for those into their third or fourth jobs, their value-addition to the organization was more important. Monetarily, offering 'the best salaries in industry' is the minimum every company is doing, apart from performance-based bonuses, long-service awards, and stock options. Many organizations frequently conduct employee satisfaction and organization climate surveys, and are setting up Manpower Allocation Cells (MAC) to assign 'the right project to the right person'. In fact, some are even helping employees with their personal and domestic responsibilities to satisfy & motivate their workforce!
Attracting the Best Talent In a tight job market, many organizations often experience precipitous and simultaneous demands for the same kinds of professionals. In their quest for manpower, they are cajoling talent around the world. In such a seller's market, software companies are striving to understand which organizational, job, and reward factors contribute to attracting the best talent?one having the right blend of technical and person-bound skills. This would mean a knowledge of 'the tools of the trade' combined with conceptualization and communication skills, capacity for analytical and logical thinking, leadership and team building, creativity and innovation. The Indian software industry suffers from a shortage of experienced people such as systems analysts and project managers, and attracting them is a key HR challenge..More to follow....