IT's lure

Padmaja Shastri / TNN / Aug 30, 2006, 04:15 IST

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Tata Consultancy Services hires three people every working hour and Accenture, 50 people in a working day, so goes the IT folklore.

PUNE: * Recently, when an FMCG company called candidates for a sales job interview, some of them wanted to know if there would be a pick-up and drop facility!
* Ram Lokhande (name changed), a chemical engineer working in a bio-technology company in Pune, recently joined Wipro for double the salary he was getting in his earlier job. And he is not the only one jumping ship for the lure of the lucre.
* Tata Consultancy Services hires three people every working hour and Accenture, 50 people in a working day, so goes the IT folklore.
Information technology (IT), IT-enabled services and BPO sectors, which usually pay a premium over other sectors, have raised the bar not only in terms of salaries, but also other facilities like employee benefits and working environment.

As a result, non-IT companies, be it in the manufacturing or services sector, are feeling the heat.
"We are losing to IT the best-inclass students in different engineering streams, who could have, otherwise, added greatly to the research and development work in their areas of specialisation. Loss of such quality talent is a bigger issue," said Pramod Chaudhari, chairman of Confederation of Indian Industry, Pune zone, and of Praj Industries.

Heads of most of the manufacturing companies across the country have been heard bemoaning the increasing attrition and salary levels, at various fora in the last two years.
Acquiring talent with the right kind of skill-sets and retaining it continues to be a big challenge.
Attractiveness of the higher pay package, opportunities to go abroad and the glamour of working in an IT company, which has plush campuses and many creature comforts, are all pull factors that make people gravitate towards the IT sector.
The scorching pace at which IT is growing and its aggressive recruitment strategies, is only adding to the talent-retention pangs of other sectors. The sector requires it to add 1.6 million to 2.3 million people by 2010, as per various estimates.
And, according to the Nasscom-McKinsey 2005 report, by 2010, the IT sector in the country may fall short of five lakh people. And talent shortage is obviously pushing up wages in non-IT sectors too.
According to industry sources, salaries in the manufacturing sector have gone up by 8 to 12 per cent this year.
Considering the sector has been growing at the rate of 9.4 per cent since 2004 — in fact, growth rate was 11 per cent in the last quarter, compared to around six per cent per year from 1991-2004, wages will continue to go northward in the sector.
In Pune alone, there would be shortage of 15,000 engineers in the short-term, said Baba Kalyani, chairman and managing director of Bharat Forge Limited, at a recent meeting.

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