It's not only Indian tech companies that are waging a war to attract and retain talent. It's a global phenomenon, according to a worldwide online survey of 153 executives of technology companies conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
With not enough quality school leavers to feed America's university system, Intel has a problem getting quality technical people for its semi-conductor factories.
In Germany Siemens AG is taking longer to hire qualified graduates and fill senior positions than before. It has had to work harder to keep its existing engineers and technical staff from being poached by competitors.
Increasingly, companies are making human capital management part of every manager's performance review. The performance metrics discussed with managers during such reviews include staff turnover, progress in the development and training of staff, as well as time-to-effectiveness (i.e., the length of time until new employees are competent in their positions).
At IBM managers are held accountable for developing and retaining talent, because it is quality people who ensure customer focus. Human capital management figures so high on the list of priorities of Yahoo! that it's one of the issues that its CEO discusses with analysts.
Yahoo! constantly asks itself who would hurt it most if they left. Having identified them, the company reviews what they are working on every year, asking what they want to be doing, and making certain that their compensation levels are competitive.
The HR department also asks people why they've stayed, and the answers help in recruiting, retention and development.
Survey respondents overwhelmingly agreed that it made more sense to keep and develop existing talent than to continually compete for new talent. Dell Computers has developmental programmes, partly to identify potential high fliers.
Development of people is the responsibility of every manager, and leaders are held accountable for the development of every team member.
Dell also pinpoints certain candidates for even more rigorous development. Candidates with high potential are given broad job content, are rotated through jobs and receive formal mentoring. One of the goals is to have fully experienced people ready at any time to replace the person above them.
Nearly half of all technology companies surveyed said they have difficulty finding technical talent in emerging markets, and just under half said these difficulties include the retention of skilled around the globe.
Fifty-five per cent agreed that they are reliant on a global talent pool, and 48 per cent said that managing a global talent pool is one of their greatest organisational challenges.
The outlook in emerging markets is quite similar. The report quotes Sushil Tayal, HR director of Logica CMG India (the offshore subsidiary of the global software services and outsourcing provider) as saying that talent acquisition, development and retention are among his highest priorities.
