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I read this posting from Sri Ji’s Blog (that could be found in one of my Links) about the Handling attrition dated 27th December 2006. I am sure the points that he mentioned does not only go with Photon but also with other Medium size organizations. With out taking this personal I would like to address few of the points he had mentioned.

1. Of course yes!!! People lie and try to be nice when they quit a company. They do not voice the actual reason. Why? I find that there could be only 2 reasons for that. Either the Employee tries to be smart or he is really dumb. In most Medium sized companies, I have heard. Employees are often threatened or there is a rumor that goes around about this. If this is true, then the dumb ones are often victimized. More importantly this does not portray a good picture about the Company. It creates a bad impression within the inmates about the company. It spreads around like the Chinese whisper.

Solution: Relieve the employee without any problem. These companies should be clear “Why do we conduct the exit interviews?” Stopping the attrition is out of the question. We are just trying to minimize it. Make the employee feel comfortable when he leaves. This does not only help the employee but also the employer. Where in the relieving employee does not stir any new rumors within the organization. More importantly, employees might come up with their actual problems. Like salary hikes, Designations, Co-employees being treated special or feeling of being left out. And I personally feel most of these issues can be addressed with a one on one talk with HR or a PR manager.

2. Yes. Overloading the other employees with the work of the left ones (here I mean both the ex-employee and the ones in furlough or leave). Most of the time employees don’t find time completing their own work in spite of working hard. Over burdening the employees, leads to stress and other political issues within the inmates. Most often training a new employee could also become a burden. New employees often come up with doubts and could become a real pain. They take away most of your time adding fuel to the fire. Most turn out to do night outs. Night outs are exciting during the start of the carrier but is not a comfortable feeling with in becomes a routine.

Solution: It is always easy to find out which team does most number of night outs (an easy way to find out if the employees are overburdened). Time to Pitch in. PR managers can talk to the individuals (which is virtually possible :-) ) or find out if there is any problem with the projects resource management. Even if the above two are not possible. Announce incentive, or compensation off or something that can makes the employee feel comfortable. But want ever you do, DO IT FAST. If you promise for an incentive and delay it, you better not promise it at all. It leaves a bad remark, especially when it comes to money. (I remember once I got my incentive almost 6 months after they promised to give. Fortunately I was one of the first ones to get it among the others. The only consoling thing, at that time.)


The best over all solution that I can think off is to have a portal or an internal website (like most big companies do), where a call can be raised for any issue that an employee faces. This could be anything like finance, payroll related issues, IT helpdesk or anything from pin to paper.

Make it a mandate. Make it a habit for all the employees to see this web site daily. Post all the internal happenings in this web site. Anything that an employee needs should always be routed through this. For example if an employee needs a mouse or any other IT accessories, a call should be lodged. And more importantly it should be addressed :-). If not addressed, call should be automatically escalated to the higher official of the concerning department.

With Microsoft’s Sharepoint Portal, these portals are just minutes away. I am not exaggerating. If at all you need help in Sharepoint portal. I will help you out.