Booming engineering sector faces brain drain

Engineering companies Larsen & Toubro, Siemens, Alstom, ABB, Wartsila, Kirloskar Electric, Crompton Greaves, and BHEL are finding it tough to retain talent, especially junior management level engineers.

This segment comprises 80 per cent of the workforce at these companies. The industry is also facing an issue of attracting fresh talent.

At its recent AGM, L&T chairman A M Naik had expressed concerns about the problems faced by the electrical engineering industry.

To retain talent, L&T has emphasised on schemes such as employee stock options.

The above mentioned companies are members of the Indian Electrical and Electronics Manufacturers Association (IEEMA). IEEMA has about 500 electrical and electronics manufacturers as its members, with around 50,000 engineers working in these companies.

According to an IEEMA source, about 7,000-10,000 engineers leave these companies every year after working for 1-3 years in them.

"Many of these engineers flock to information technology (IT) and IT-enabled services (ITES) industries. Others go for better prospects abroad. The industry has to find replacement of these engineers every year. It costs the industry resources to train these engineers," said the IEEMA official.

"Even at campus interviews, the talented ones opt for companies which offer better pay like IT companies. It is the bigger companies such as L&T, Siemens which face bigger problems of talent retention compared with their smaller counterparts," he said.

The growth in the engineering industry also creates the need for adding up more engineers every year. So in all the industry faces a task to recruit 10,000-12,000 engineers every year.

Unlike companies such as L&T or Siemens, not all companies are able to afford to invest in stock options or pay salaries on par to the level of IT industry, said the official. To reduce the menace, IEEMA is planning to hold talks and awareness programmes with the student fraternity across Indian institutes.

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THE GREAT ESCAPE

20 % of the engineers are at the risk of leaving companies every year

Industry faces a task to recruit 10,000-12,000 engineers every year

About 7,000-10,000 engineers switch jobs after working for 1-3 years