Attrition and Aspirations

[Post Contributed by regular reader R Karthik. Got a view, an experience to share.? Mail it to me and I'll post it on the blog]

One Sunday i was invited by a few acquaintances to join a party.

A seasonally brewed beverage of northern India favored much during Holi-putatively held as a 'prasad' (religious offering) of/to Lord Shiva, Bhaang is a tradition here in the northern part of the country.

And that is good reason to swig a little occasionally!

I got to meet a bunch of b-school grads who have had their initial 1 or 2 year tryst with industry.

That is exactly when I thought this deserves to be the subject of a social if not business blog.It was a tête-à-tête that lasted 3 hours and the discussions ranged over an array of topics covering organizations, work, people (and i thought of Gautam's blog) and so on.
And then we ventured into the much-debated topics of salary ranges in IT industry, employee attrition & issues.

MBAs they were all; working on technologies, consulting and other solutions.

"So what do you think makes people quit?" I quipped
These guys (all our partyers) as cases in point, have themselves changed jobs once within a span of 2 years!

I conducted an appreciate inquiry on each of their cases deftly throwing a probing question or two wherever required during their narrative.What came out was that their aspirations (for life & career) were greater in all terms which they nurtured in isolation renouncing the
backing of their organizations/managers.

No! It is not the archetypical HR cliché "aspirations mismatch" that I am talking of. A young and fairly shrewd professional gauges what kind of growth trajectory the organization holds in store for him/her. If the articulation of the same is not loud and lucid to the knowledge worker
he does what he is best at doing...networks, floats his CV and manages to pull off another high-priced job offer over the weekend.

Given all the right circumstances in personal life/family too, they admit they would have made the leap sooner or later. And it is only this slice (occurring due to inadequate aspirations mgmt) of the attrition pie which we can possibly address or manage. To a great extent employee aspirations can be managed and exploited to a mutual benefit with the right management and practices.The organizations' articulation of career growth for its high-potential employees can't
be bleak (or even perceived bleak). "A better offer" is everywhere and for everyone who decides to quit a job but that can't be the sole cause attributable to all the attrition.

If you think through, you realize that salaries are only the vegetable dressing on the meal laid down. They can only create the visual appeal.

The proof of the pudding is only in the eating!

All this over a glass of 'Bhaang'; it did bring out a lot of thoughts from its connoisseurs!
Well, it was not a bad way to have spent leisure time on a holiday!