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Software is a wealth and job creating industry, which has in just
a few years, grown to US $ 1 trillion, employing millions of
professionals worldwide. The Indian software industry has
burgeoned, showing a nearly 50% compounded annual growth rate over
the recent years. Being a knowledge-based industry, a high
intellectual capital lends competitive advantage to a firm.
Intellectual capital comprises human capital and intellectual
assets–the latter being any created bit of knowledge or expertise.
With a global explosion in market-opportunities in the IT sector,
the shortage of manpower both in numbers and skills is a prime
challenge for HR professionals. The related issues are varied
indeed: recruitment of world-class workforce and their retention,
compensation and career planning, technological obsolescence and
employee turnover. This article presents some of the findings of
our recent research on the HR challenges posed by the IT sector.
 Workforce Retention and Motivation
Retention and motivation of personnel are major HR concerns today.
People–a Gartner group company specializing in management of human
capital in IT organizations–has observed that the average tenure
for an IT professional is less than three years. Further, the use
of new technologies, the support of learning and training, and a
challenging environment ranked higher than competitive pay
structures as effective retention practices. Our own recent survey
of 1028 software professionals from 14 Indian software companies,
showed that while the professional gave importance to personal and
cultural job-fit, HR managers believed that the key to retention
was salary and career satisfaction. Money was a prime motivator
for 'starters', but for those into their third or fourth jobs,
their value-addition to the organization was more important.
Monetarily, offering 'the best salaries in industry' is the
minimum every company is doing, apart from performance-based
bonuses, long-service awards, and stock options. Many
organizations frequently conduct employee satisfaction and
organization climate surveys, and are setting up Manpower
Allocation Cells (MAC) to assign 'the right project to the right
person'. In fact, some are even helping employees with their
personal and domestic responsibilities to satisfy & motivate their
workforce!
Attracting the Best Talent
In a tight job market, many organizations often experience
precipitous and simultaneous demands for the same kinds of
professionals. In their quest for manpower, they are cajoling
talent around the world. In such a seller's market, software
companies are striving to understand which organizational, job,
and reward factors contribute to attracting the best talent–one
having the right blend of technical and person-bound skills. This
would mean a knowledge of 'the tools of the trade' combined with
conceptualization and communication skills, capacity for
analytical and logical thinking, leadership and team building,
creativity and innovation. The Indian software industry suffers
from a shortage of experienced people such as systems analysts and
project managers, and attracting them is a key HR challenge......more on next page
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Editorial