Tuesday, April 24, 2007

73% Attrition

Can any business survive if three-fourths of its workers leave every year?

India's Economic Times has an article saying Wipro's worker attrition rate is 73% per year. Now the way Wipro calculates its "attrition rate" may inflate the headline number; the company includes persons the company had made a job offer but declined to join.

Even if the true figure is 25% a year, i.e. one out of every four jobs has a new face each year, it still speaks to the operational problems facing Wipro, and the rest of India's A-Team BPOs. Anyone care to be the HR director in an Indian BPO?
The business processing unit of IT bellwether Wipro has seen an annualised attrition rate of 73 per cent for 2006-07, a top company executive said today. The attrition rate included those who were given the offer letter for a job but did not join the organisation, Wipro BPO's Chief Executive T K Kurien told reporters after Wipro announced its financial results here. The annualised figures were calculated on the basis of 16.9 per cent in the fourth quarter of the fiscal 2006-07. During the quarter, voluntary attrition rate was 15.7 per cent. "Though the attrition rate has slowed down, a lot is still needs to be done on this aspect," he said. Outlining the reasons for attrition, he said one-third of those who dropped out were because of offers by competitors while another one-third quit to pursue higher studies. "One-third of those who left were those who had quit the industry as a whole. Women form a large part of this segment," Kurien said. The late night shift was a possible reason for women dropping out, he added. He said the company has started several programmes, including one-on-one meetings with employees to reduce the attrition of employees. Commenting on the high figure of 73 per cent as compared to rival figures, Kurien said it was because the measurement of attrition varied from company to company. Wipro BPO considered attrition right after the offer letter was handed over to the individual quitting the job, he said.

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