Attrition seen hitting traditional sectors too

High attrition rates, which have been ailing the business process outsourcing industry, is beginning to raise concerns in traditional sectors as well.

A recent Employee Vulnerable Study by NFO India has found that employees working in traditional sectors like manufacturing, engineering, public sector undertakings and services are dissatisfied and will hop jobs at the first available opportunity.

On the other hand, employees working in the modern financial services, insurance and banking, FMCG and white goods, infotech and telecom sectors seem relatively more satisfied.

"The overall TRI*M index of 55 for Corporate India denotes 'possible vulnerability' of white-collar workers and thereby should ring alarm bells for human resources heads," cautions Gautam Nath, director (corporate services), NFO.

The NFO TRI*M index score provides a measure of the relationship that a given company enjoys with stakeholders or employees.

So what makes six in every ten employees vulnerable?

For the manufacturing sector, several factors like lack of growth opportunities, dissatisfaction with job content, inadequate emphasis on policies and systems and interpersonal relationships have been seen as leading causes of low motivation levels among the workforce.

"There is a crying need for companies to engage employees' interest by creating a conducive environment for growth and learning. They should also bolster the 'we-feeling' and compensate their employees as per industry standards," Nath said.

NFO randomly polled over 200 corporate executives from some leading public sector undertakings and private companies engaged in manufacturing, banking and finance, insurance, infotech and telecom and hospitality among others.

The survey was restricted to Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore and aimed to understand motivation levels of employees, reasons for the high degree of employee turnover in certain sectors and factors that keep the interest level of employees going.

In the second stage of the survey, NFO also factored in the views of experts from leading job portals and

human resources consultants to understand the reason for the vulnerability among the white collar workforce in India.

NFO WorldGroup is one of the world's leading providers of research-based marketing information and counselling.

NFO has facilitated Fortune 500 clients' business decisions for more than 50 years by providing in-depth knowledge and understanding of consumers and brands through research.

Their services include comprehensive counselling on market evaluation, product development, brand management, customer satisfaction, pricing, distribution and advertising effectiveness.

NFO is a worldwide leader in Internet-based research and maintains one of the world's largest interactive panel communities.