Importance of HR functions rising across technology firms

Engineers are in high demand across the world with rapid digital adoption. India with a large talent base has seen unprecedented level of attrition in the last 18 months. Though the world is coming back to normalcy post the Omicron wave, the demand is likely to sustain this year. In a conversation with Bizz Buzz, Aditya Narayan Mishra, Director and CEO of CIEL HR Services, said that hiring frenzy may stabilize in the second half of this year. He also said that IT firms are eager to get their employees back in office to address many HR issues faced by them in the last two years. He emphasized that the importance of HR functions is increasing across the IT firms and leaders from this department are likely to lead companies in the coming years

What is there in an IT company? It's only the culture. All their machines are laptops which can be connected from anywhere. The biggest problem today for the HR managers is that employees don't know what is the culture of the company? The reason is that many of them have been hired newly. Given the high attrition level, we can safely say already 30% of the people have left in the last 18 months. The new people have very less idea about what the company is, and what is the culture of the company because the managers have no face-to-face interactions with any of them. That might have happened in virtual platforms. That is the reason that we are witnessing the problems of impersonation, moonlighting, and many more. All these things are the outcome of the relationship which have become very transactional

Hiring activity usually comes down during November-December period due to furloughs. It's not worrying and hiring will continue. But one factor, we have to watch out about the return to work. Due to the Omicron wave, companies have not asked employees to come back to office. Today, a lot of people who are working from home can attend interviews for exploring various opportunities. In office environment, employees have to submit phones (sometime), have restricted access to certain sites and many more such things. So, attending interviews is not easy. So, even if return to work happens for 30% of people, the speed of IT hiring may get impacted. The pace of hiring may be slightly down in the second half of 2022 (July- December period) because cycle time of recruiting will increase

How do you view the hiring scenario of engineers in 2022? Can we see the momentum to continue for all- IT firms, global in-house centres (GICs) of MNCs and startups?

Hiring in GICs will continue. How Europe, the US and other economies perform, that will drive the hiring as the ultimate customers are the companies abroad. People have got used to working from home. So, we don't expect much disruption in hiring front. But, we are a little cautious on the GIC hiring front. So, the pace of hiring in 2022 is likely to be similar to 2021. In case of technology startups and product companies, growth will continue.

Though we have seen some slackening in hiring activity, the attrition numbers remain at elevated level for IT companies. What are your thoughts on the overall attrition level?

Hiring activity usually comes down during November-December period due to furloughs. It's not worrying and hiring will continue. But one factor, we have to watch out about the return to work. Due to the Omicron wave, companies have not asked employees to come back to office.

Today, a lot of people who are working from home can attend interviews for exploring various opportunities. In office environment, employees have to submit phones (sometime), have restricted access to certain sites and many more such things. So, attending interviews is not easy. So, even if return to work happens for 30 per cent of people, the speed of IT hiring may get impacted. The pace of hiring may be slightly down in the second half of 2022 (July- December period) because cycle time of recruiting will increase.

HR managers of technology industry are witnessing many new phenomena in last two years. Firstly, the market has largely been favourable to employees. Secondly, we have seen moonlighting (taking up other paid assignments while on a job), impersonation during interviews among others. Also, HR managers are not sure whether staffers from tier-II cities hired virtually will come back to main centres when work from offices start. What is your perspective on these issues?

I think, some companies will insist that employees should come back to offices. Most large companies are likely to call their employees back to offices. Big companies will insist that employees should come back to base locations. So, employees may not work everyday, but they will operate from base locations. However, there are also other options that the companies are coming up with. For instance, some of the large companies are setting up centres in tier-II cities. This helps staffers to stay and work in those tier-II cities or also allow people to travel from nearby areas. These companies are holding weekly or monthly meeting or get-together in those locations. What is there in an IT company? It's only the culture. All their machines are laptops which can be connected from anywhere. The biggest problem today for the HR managers is that employees don't know what is the culture of the company? The reason is that many of them have been hired newly. Given the high attrition level, we can safely say already 30 per cent of the people have left in the last 18 months. The new people have very less idea about what the company is, and what is the culture of the company because the managers have no face-to-face interactions with any of them. That might have happened in virtual platforms. That is the reason that we are witnessing the problems of impersonation, moonlighting, and many more. All these things are the outcome of the relationship which have become very transactional.

Earlier, that was not the case because employees took these activities as wrong and unethical. Ethical standards were more visible. A sense of competition and cooperation was also there. If somebody is performing well in the team, other staffers used to try for performing like him/her. A lot of things also used to happen by seeing. If the best performer is putting in nine hours of work, how can I take a tea break of one hour? Those kinds of things used to happen. That is the pressure of the community. So, it is now a challenge to build that community. This is the biggest challenge for IT companies. So, return to work in offices will happen. Small companies may not care so much but large companies will push for it. People have to come back to base centres. They may not come to offices everyday but it will happen. Most of the staffers of IT companies are young. So, companies are likely to come up with a separate career track for people who are reluctant to come back to offices.

Does HR function become very important for IT companies? Can we see leaders from HR functions getting board positions in technology firms?

Though it may take some time, there is growing importance of HR functions in IT companies for company's culture, planning and future. So, this is very much a possibility in technology companies. Companies are also taking steps in this direction. For instance, firms are doing job rotation for all leaders so that HR leaders are exposed to all functions. These things can prepare them for future CEO or other CXO roles.