The retention hassle is rampant due to competition in the tech jobs market. Hiring cycles have extended and recruitment costs have gone up in a market which is already inflated. It is no longer enough to deliberate on hiring tech talent; ensuring that they stay on in the company is key to driving long-term growth and innovation. To take this conversation forward and gather expert insights from HR leaders, this session moderated by Abhimanyu Saxena, Co-Founder, InterviewBit and Scaler and joined in by Abhishek Mehrotra, CHRO, Yubi; Shyam Krishnamurthy-Country Head, airasia Super App; Akash Chauhan-Head of HR, cure.fit (cult.fit); and Sameera Singh, Head Director-Learning & Development, Razorpay dives deep into empowering retention in the blazing tech skills market.
Key retention challenges
In a skill-based industry like tech, skill waves come and go leading to a struggle with talent for hot skills. Abhimanyu believes that so much has also to do with a massive growth in role opportunities in tech which is definitely a sign of a growing economy. However, securing talent for the long term will be critical to creating impact. For Abhishek, that very retention boils down to a few core questions- “Are we able to articulate clearly what we are expecting talent to do?”, “What is the organization going for and what and why are people working for?” and “What is the impact they create on the ground?” Also, organizations must understand that reduced tenures are a reality, and hence focus on making the next 2 years fruitful for both the parties involved. “Plan the talent supply for continuity”, says Akash. Shyam shares that a talent mix of senior experienced folks plus campus hires for internships works wellThe organization listened and understood the problem when Covid struck the travel industry, HR partners manoeuvred policies for changing times, and people were provided with a happy workspace environment. “People need to come to office feeling they are doing something impactful for customers, build that story into everything you do, and the HR function must work as a cohesive unit”, says Shyam. Cohesion across functions is a must to build an entire employee experience. Sameera believes that there is a basic need for people to do rich work and live a life of fulfilment through their work with autonomy, mastery and purpose. For example, exit data shows that people would have stayed back given opportunities within the firm. Weaving different elements such as L&D, career pathing, internal mobility, performance process etc. in the employee experience, proactively preparing employees for upcoming opportunities and embedding this in a talent-first culture is necessary. “We have conversations, understand the overall strategy and how we can be advisors and add insights proactively to attract-engage-retain”, says Sameera. How to retain effectively?
A series of internal and external facing interventions work together in retaining top talent effectively:
Onboarding: Bridging the skill gap requires hand-holding. At AirAsia Super App the remote tech-onboarding program creates breadth and depth of know-how and helps faster assimilate the fresher talent. Combined with a buddy system, it gives tech support and collaboration for freshers to help them start contributing. “We have KPIs to measure their first pull-request in the system to signify if employee can contribute”, says Shyam.
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