Feature

Not so easy to lure

Vinita Gupta writes about the interesting trend of mid-career professionals in India declining new job offers, with their organizations becoming flexible in terms of salary structures, job environment and career growth

Mid-career professionals usually avoid taking risks that are involved while switching over jobs. Due to this the attrition rate is higher in the case of entry level professionals than mid-career professionals. This is primarily due to various external factors like family, personal and professional priorities.

According to surveys, the average number of mid-level professionals declining job offers raised from 20%-25% in 2008 as against 10%-15% in 2007.

These professionals don’t leave an organization just for the sake of salary hike, other factors like work-life balance, career growth, man manager issues, etc., play crucial roles in making them decide about leaving the organization. Also, HR plays a crucial role in retaining the employee, which results in declining new job offers by the employee.

Iti Kumar, AVP HR, GlobalLogic pointed out that mid-career professionals are matured and they are capable of coping up with all kinds of situations. They have a better approach while dealing with business than young professionals. The latter are impulsive in nature and easily get attracted to the market, whereas mid-level employees have a long-term perspective and don’t look for short-term gains.

Mid-level professionals believe that there is ample growth potential for self, and see themselves growing with the company and cherish being a part of it. “There is also considerable loyalty quotient built up over the years and they become a part of the organization,” felt Lavanya Varadarajan, Head-HR, Gemini Communication.

Venkatesh Subramanian, VP and Head of IT Career Practice, TMI Network mentioned, “We experienced significant job offer decline, especially in the second quarter of 2007-2008. More than 40% of mid-career professionals declined job offers, while around 25% accepted it and then graded whether it is good or not.”

He added, “Also, the current company retains the employees by giving them counter offers as they want to save the costs that goes in hiring new employees.”

Rajaram Agrawal, MD, TalentAhead believed that mid-career employees in India are now more cautious due to the slowdown in the US economy (impacting IT companies in India), as well as waiting for the annual appraisal that comes around March/April in India.

According to Rajkumar D, Senior Manager, HR, Microland, about 50% of mid-career professionals who get a job offer, tend to decline it. He added, “The reason for such behavior is because the professional is in two minds as to what course of action to take. Many professionals are unhappy with their current organization yet do not wish to change jobs as they feel it would be unstable. The number of risk-takers among mid-career professionals is extremely low compared to those at the early stage of their career.”

C Mahalingam, EVP and Chief People Officer, Symphony Services disagrees with this view. He felt that, mid-career professionals are the ones who often seek out change. “Mid-career blues are very common and unless assisted with appropriate mentoring, these are the candidates that churn quite a lot. This is not only true of the IT industry, but of any industry in general, including in other countries,” he said. Mid-career crisis present themselves when people have to make clear choices about career directions to continue as a techie or to climb the managerial ladder, to stay put in India or to go abroad, to change a domain or stick to it, and for women employees mid-career also presents a unique dilemma of whether to take a break to raise a family or continue to work.

Has the recruitment market stabilized?

Does this declining of job offers by the mid-level employees show that the recruitment market has been stabilized?

According to Mahalingam, the recruitment/talent market hardly ever stabilizes. There is always a need for mature mid-career professionals and hence given this talent segment, the recruitment market will remain active and buzzing.

“These trends show that the people’s expectations have risen and it is further difficult for the recruitment experts to fill in the gaps with regard to the talent crunch faced commonly by the Indian market. Further, there would be a stretch in the recruitment cycle at stages of talent procurement leading to unbalanced cycles,” said Reddy.

Kumar believed that the recruitment market is not just dependent on less attrition among mid-career professionals. She added, “It’s purely dependent on factors like ramp up in the project/organization, and various technologies and skill set requirements.”

Factors leading to the decline

It is not just a good present salary which alone plays a crucial role for not accepting a new job offer. There are a lot many factors like flexibility in maintaining work-life balance; satisfaction with job profile, job content, nature or quality of work; rapid career progression in the present organization; a healthy team environment that nurtures innovation and growth, empowerment, grooming and delegation.

Vishal Taneja, Senior Consultant, Redileon, mentioned that usually mid-career professionals hold two or three job offers, but before joining any company they evaluate the different options that include compensation, profile, location, etc.

Taneja said, “Earlier people used to look at the company’s brand name, but now they look at the compensation, leadership role and work environment. For instance, out of the 10 mid-level employees, two-three employees would accept the offer and others won’t.”

Reddy agrees with Taneja that to a greater extent good salary and job flexibility do play a vital role as they bring about a certain extent of personalization of the needs of the individual, which in itself becomes a deal difficult to replicate by the competitors.

Salary is a common reason for job changes, whereas flexibility is important to very few individuals with respect to a job change, felt Agrawal.

Suresh Reddy, Chairman and MD, Ybrant, mentioned that a considerable number of employees decline these offer on the grounds of job profile i.e. challenges involved, roles and responsibilities.

“Now it is a market that is marked with lack of quality people and increasing demand for manpower from new businesses and relatively new sectors. Also, the trend of counter-offers has also caught on; many firms are making counter-offers now to retain talent,” added Reddy.

In Rajkumar’s opinion, a mid-career professional will look at stability, fixed location, less travel and consistency, more than good salary and flexibility as he felt that money takes a backseat after a certain point in one’s career.

Thus job mobility has both positive and negative dimensions to it. On the positive side, people rediscover themselves and write a new chapter in their professional career. For example, moving from a vanilla IT services company to a highly enriching career in a product focused organization. But the IT industry will benefit if the mid-career mobility helps people find their comfort zones and they settle down. Otherwise, the industry will not benefit, but actually suffer.

vinita.gupta@expressindia.com