Newer Generations, Evolving Needs and a Growing Organization: A Fairy-tale Story?

Is it only a Number Game?

This tech organization recruited more than 3000 fresh engineers last year – and what did they find out? They lose more than 30% of this talent by the end of Year-1. The huge churn in these layers was imposing massive stresses on the system as the machinery went into an overdrive of recruiting, training and exits.

What Lies Beneath the Surface

Upon closer inspection, it was found that the attrition was the highest in the 1–5-year experience band – and the organization was unable to fathom why these youngsters were leaving in hordes.

We had to get to the bottom of this; so, we got a third-party organization to conduct the exit-interviews. We had several rounds of focused group discussions with both freshers and laterals and correlated the findings with the third-party vendor. Little did we know that we were in for a few surprises.

We found that we needed to take care of the needs of the young associates, and these needs differed from what we were used to seeing in the rest of the organization – and we created a holistic framework comprising of the following key pillars:

• Physical & Mental Wellness

• Financial Wellness

• Work-related Wellness

• Reverse Mentoring

• Giving back to Society

• Pursuing your Passion

The Programme

On the Physical Wellness front, we introduced new policies related to physical well-being, including but not limited to health check-ups for associates and their families, memberships to Gyms, and more.

To cater to Mental Wellness, we created awareness on Mental Health to our associates through our community of Mental Health Ambassadors. Managers were also trained to identify burnout indicators. Along with our Internal Social Counsellors, we collaborated with an external agency, so that associates or their family members could reach out for support with no qualms.

To aid Financial Wellness, we ensured that all our new joiners went through one-day sessions on how to invest money and be prudent. The program has received outstanding feedback.

To take care of Work-related Wellness, the Focused Group Discussions found that new associates were lost as to what is next at the end of the first year. We introduced Career Evangelists where department Heads and above, including the President, received inputs on how to play the role of coaches, and anyone in the organization could reach out to any of these “Career Evangelists” for support when they reach crossroads. This could be done with no permission and no documentation. We have had more than 1000 reach-outs in the first year of implementation, and feedback from both coaches and the associates have been positive.

Another dimension to look at is how well managers can understand how to deal with the various generational trends. We introduced Reverse Mentoring as a symbiotic platform to enable the managers to connect with youngsters and learn from them, get used to the social media phenomenon and also give youngsters a peek into leadership from close quarters and understand the rationale behind decision making. We have covered almost all the Senior Managers till date under this programme.

While taking care of ourselves and our work, it is wholesome to give back to the society. The organization had a strong CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) arm, and this has grown further; the hours put in by the associates for volunteering has been at an all-time-high.

We also understood the need for fuelling one’s passion – and several non-tech communities were born – like music, dance, drama, women’s cricket, cycling, adventure, photography, painting, and more. We have more than 7000 active members in these communities; platforms are consistently arranged for associates to showcase their skills; competitions are held for them to up their skill-levels and also serve as a tool for networking. The feedback has been positive.

A Happily Ever After?

The programme is a huge hit amongst the youngsters, and attrition has come down drastically, but it is still too early to say whether it is attributed to this programme or the prevailing economic uncertainties facing organizations all over the world.