Insylabs' Essay: Struggle With Attraction And Retention Of Employees.

Insylabs' Vision and Mission

“How long is the list?” Sushant Bhushan asked as he pointed to a three page document in his hand at 10:00 A.M. on one fine morning. A PPD (Principal Partner Director) since 2013 is in a fix. From the last three quarters, same has been the case. The room had pin drop silence when someone suddenly broke the silence.

Vij, the Recruitment Head pointed out, “Sushant, the number is still the same. We are losing out on them.”

‘Knowledge is wisdom and small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises. Insylabs personifies this rather well.’- Insylabs’ Vision and Mission. Being a Start- up which got incorporated in 2008, Insylabs (An ISO 9001:2008 Certified) is a firm positioned strongly in the analytics and consulting services. (Insylabs, 2017) Having a strong network of offices all over the world, with several clients across the globe.
Meeting the deadlines being the main motto, Insylabs has a small number in the list of their ‘contractual’ employees.

Ganesh, Incorporator and PPD vocalized during the every week meet of top level management, “Sushant, it’s high time we find quality and dedication!”
Insylabs was in dumps. They had their turnover rate reaching to 40%. Moreover there was a change of need?!

“Ganesh- ‘self-driven is the word’!” Sushant articulated and left for a personal engagement to be dealt with. In the room where the PPD and Recruitment Head are worried about the attrition rate touching sky limits, on the other hand employees are having a gala time. In a cabin space full of enthusiasms, Neeti, an Insylabs employee emerged with a letter from a big data analytics company. It was her offer letter.

And this has been the case from quite a few months. Insylabs is a company where hiring is done on contractual basis. Like for example: A data analytics project comes in the hands of the PPDs and thus on the basis of the required time for that project- the hiring is done and as soon as it ends, the employee is no more an employee with the company. This required a strong organizational change in the minset.

This is due to the industry requirements. Industry being volatile, the types of the projects is quite different every time and that is why Insylabs have been quite strict about contractual or just-in-time hiring. But this has 20% of attrition when the terms of employment are kept forward. Moreover other 80% work for the amount of time for a single project and might leave is there is no other project for their expertise.

The Problem with Contractual Hiring

This model of hiring might have been going quite well for the firm. But if we dig deeper into the soil- it’s been quite record breaking even. The trends that Insylabs show will surprise us.

Out of 100%, 20% employees leave in initial stage when contractual employment is put forward to them. In the remaining 80%, as told, they work till the time project ends. Out of that 80%, 40% leave and do come back when need or their demand is there for any project. But as high as 40% people leave by taking knowledge from Insylabs to big corporates and never return.

Insylabs, which might still be called as a start-up has actually empowered so many employees with the amount of exposure they provide. But the way things worked there were way too different and thus a change was needed. Sushant who was thinking the same in his cabin, tried and chalk down a flow of getting a OD Consultant who can be as a third party and help in this situation.

 Insylabs providing them with international clients give employees a chance to know about the global scenarios. And this is the reason they leave. Yes that’s a matter to ponder upon.

Employees have been like this. As can be said this is the Indian Labor market, they leave as soon that field develops, the sectors is bestowed with innovation and there you go. You tend to grab another ‘better’ opportunities. And this is where intervention was required in great deal. (YPP Advisors,2015)

And Neeti, heading a U.S. based client had worked on three projects. She was one of them who continued after their first project and got their employment renewed with Insylabs. Receiving a considerable raise from her first project, she is still not happy with the same.

And it was 1:30 P.M. - lunch time had them dispersing to all the nearby places where Neeti and Sonam had a conversation worth interpreting.

Neeti: “Are we even in the two- tier companies?”

Thinking about where Insylabs can be actually put, Sonam answered, “For me this is just a ‘pass- time job’, till the time I don’t start with another job in my platter.” To which Neeti agreed, she was always in the notion of learning in a startup eco- system, the nitty-gritties of the industry, dealing with the clients on first hand basis.  “This has provided me with an immense amount of knowledge, now it’s time to earn more with ‘a brand in my hand.’”

The Indian Labor Market and Employee Turnover

It’s all about brands these days. Sure, Insylabs was growing — in revenue, profitability, and reputation, client base, fields, diversification, experience — but it was still much smaller than companies like Infosys, HCL, and other leading global providers of low- to midrange business-process outsourcing services. (Leena & Ramanathan, 2015)

In the past decade, Insylabs’ PPDs had saved the organization from getting shadowed by other players and still compete in the industry to make it a success story — but it was hardly in the first or second tier as per employees and industry standards.

It was quite a lot of scorching heat when in a small Air conditioned room, at 3:15 P.M. - Sushant, Ganesha and Vij- joining them was Indra, the Human Resource head.

Indra being quite disappointed didn’t know what to present to the other stakeholders and clients in the annual meeting.

“I need to present these numbers at the end of this month. I obviously can’t do away with the theory of people leaving organization in the very start because of contractual hiring as per the project flow.” said Indra.

To which Sushant said, “Indra, me and Ganesh being for technical background have been supervising almost all the projects and this has been creating a hurdle for us. We one hand should be focusing on getting projects in the company are working as mere employee.”

For many years, Insylabs is working with global clients in the field of Business, Management and Strategy Consulting, Analytics and Analysis Services, Software Development and Support, Web Services, SEO and Web Marketing, Market Research, Telecom Audit etc.

For separate projects, hiring with just-in-time principle has made them compromise in quality in terms of persuasion, leadership and self-driving qualities.

Ganesh pointed out when the clock displayed 4 PM sharp, “Guys, that’s what the problem is. Sushant is cent percent true. We can’t play dual roles every time. On one hand where we are talking about our attrition rates (pointing at the three page document) and just-in-time hiring, on other we are falling short of people for the projects. Or I should rather say the right fit for our firm, the way we work.” Sushant looked down and had no clue as to do what.

Recruitment head, Vij said that the three page document just tell us that we might not be targeting the right audience for our jobs. Recruiting on good will basis might have cost them a lot.

Insylabs has a unique culture of hiring on goodwill basis. Supposedly Ganesh knowing people who are eager to learn and can pull of the work are hired. And similarly the whole chain goes on. And this is where they compromise on very important qualities of leadership, willingness to stay when need be.

Indra: “Sushant, Vij, and Ganesh- it’s very clear that we are in no mood and position to retain the employees, because that’s not how we work. But when competitors offer a 30% pay raise- they will always leave in between the project. It’s what we’re hearing in the exit interviews.” Indra countered. “It’s easy for them to ‘escape’ and there you are with a long three page document which states each and every employee who has left so far and has never come back.”

And the meeting dispersed because it was 5:00 P.M. – time to go home and it was more of work waiting for them. Working with U.S.A. clients has never been easy because UTC+05:30 and other so many American time zones.

1. Is it right for companies like Insylabs to hire on contractual basis?
2. What can be the possible new ways to bring about an organizational change?
3. What can Sushant and Ganesh do to get more projects and avoid technical supervision (by getting self-driven employees)?

References

Insylabs (2017) Home. https://insylabs.com/. (Retrieved- 15^th May, 2017 at 9:55 A.M.)

YPP Advisors (2015) Global It Trends And The Indian Scenario For 2015 And Beyond-Ypp Advisors LLP- https://yppadvisors.com/global-it-trends-and-the-indian-scenario-for-2015-and-beyond/
(Retrieved- 15^th May, 2017 at 9:55 A.M.)

Leena, B. & Ramanathan, A. (2015) Hiring, wages, attrition seen rising this fiscal in IT sector https://www.livemint.com/Industry/Zv4Ruj7MKn6PIHRRmzX9zH/Hiring-wages-attrition-seen-rising-this-fiscal-in-IT-secto.html
(Retrieved- 15^th May, 2017 at 9:55 A.M.)

Other two references will be in the questions and answers on which the student will work as I have been asked to write the case study in which 2 references can be given as stated in the doc file as well.