Infosys fine-tunes HR policies to stem staff attrition, boost revenue per employee

India’s second biggest software services company Infosys Technologies Ltd has launched a program called Talent Strategy 2015 to deal with a large number of global hires, attract talent and stem attrition to boost revenue per employee, The Economic Times reported.

The company, which witnessed 17.5 percent attrition in the October-December 2010 quarter, is recasting its internal processes to make it more flexible for its young staffers, drawing inspiration from James Surowiecki’s Wisdom of Crowds.

“Given that we are a very large company, it’s important to decentralize and democratize ideas and inputs,” Nandita Gurjar, group head, human resources, of Infosys was quoted as saying in the report.

The new program is a part of company’s five-year plan to ideate talent management paradigms and practices required for Infosys of 2015, Gurjar said.

As part of the program, the company embarked on a fact-finding exercise by undertaking a three-month quick survey among its employees starting September 2010. Employees were asked to define policies and initiatives they wanted.

A panel of 100 members drawn from business verticals and geographies, in the age group of 21 years to 53 years with tenures of 6 months to 15 years, along with business heads will evaluate the ideas and implement those which are accepted.

Infosys is fine-tuning its talent retention process as well. It plans to create an internal job market that will allow the company’s staff to check the availability of roles and the compensation awarded.

Employees have expressed their interest to work with mobile phones, BlackBerrys, iPads and iPods besides other gadgets instead of computers and workstations which are seen as incentives for staff to enjoy access to digitization.

The report said employees who were unaware of the billing process that their roles generated and that the company has tightened this process as well. This measure will help employees shift their roles. Revenue per employee for onsite staff is at $12,800, while it is $4,500 for offshore staff.

Gurjar said the company expects to see good results of these measures within the next 18 months although she refused to disclose details regarding any increase in billing fees.

Infosys’s smaller rival and India’s third biggest software services company Wipro and larger rival Tata Consultancy Services, which is India’s biggest software services, faced attrition of 21.7 percent and 14.4 percent respectively, in the October-December period. Typically, Infosys like any of its competitors witnessed a flight of talent with 3 years to 8 years experience.