1.

Problem Areas The below mentioned areas have been identified as problem areas in the case Infosys (A): Strategic Human Resource Management. i. During the liberalization period India witnessed large entry of Multi National Companies, even the IT sector experienced the entry of Foreign IT companies. The entry of MNC posed a threat to Infosys and to other Indian IT players as they stood a chance of losing their valuable talent pool or their employees to the foreign IT companies. In order to ensure the retention of Infosyss employees, they maintained a salary which is 10%-15% higher than the industry standards. Infosys also offered Stock options to their employees and Infosys are pioneers among the Indian industries to introduce stock option schemes.

ii.

Infosys tried to establish a very fine rapport with the employees by positioning the senior executives as very approachable for settling grievances and they reiterated on this concept by providing financial assistance to the employees during emergencies. Infosys identified that health was not of primary concern to the employees, hence Infosys created a Platform called HALE to cater to their health and lifestyle needs. Yet employee discontent was on the rise in spite of the employee satisfaction methods adopted by Infosys.

iii.

Growth of the company was attributed by two troubling factors 1) As Infosys became more process oriented, employees had to perform work which was monotonous and that which restricted their creative and technical ingenuity that had been inherent in their work during initial years. 2) Employees felt that company was becoming more impersonal and perks which were available to them initial years were being repealed.

iv.

Infosys is a company high on morale and work ethics and were very particular that their employees should be in line with their core value C-LIFE. Hence

Infosys was on pursuit to recruit people who identified with their core values. But it turned out to be very challenging as they were experiencing a dearth in talented resources. v. Employees grew in large numbers as the clients began to expect greater efficiency and faster turnaround vi. Infosys had made many job offers way ahead of their requirement due to a wrong job analysis. They absorbed all those who were given the offer but did not find suitable vacancies or positions to accommodate all, hence many were benched. vii. U.S. government took very hard measures on issuing business process visas and it adversely affected the onsite operations at client locations. viii. Variable pay scheme was not very much welcomed by the employees as there would be disparity of pay. ix. Broad banding was also a failed attempt by the management in creating a role based organisation. x. Promotion policy was revamped and new promotion policy was adopted on the basis of three factors: i. individual performance ii. Individuals abilities to fulfil the next role. iii. Need of that particular opening within the organisation. The employees found this mechanism to be confusing. 2. Recommendations, Positives and negatives, mitigating negatives i. Employees stick on to a company for various reasons. According to the Job Sculpting article by Timothy Butler and James Waldroop, employees should be retained by identifying what is their Deeply Embedded Life Interests (DELI). Every person has a DELI, few may have identified it whereas the rest are yet to identify and the Job sculpting manager should help them to identify their DELI and should retain them by facilitating a job in which they could derive satisfaction by fulfilling their DELI

Blindly increasing the pay or promotion may not be a successful retention method for all. It varies from person to person and increase in the pay will only retain the employee for a short while. Infosys itself had indentified that it wasnt the health schemes or lifestyle schemes that motivates or retains the employees. All these just prolong their stay in the company or make it a little more comfortable. But end of the day it is DELI that would motivate them to stay in the company. DELI is something that everyone would want to pursue and they would keep jumping from firm to firm until they find one.

ii.

iii.

Infosys became more process oriented and in time they conveniently forgot about the effects of monotonous work on its employees. It curbed their creative and technological ingenuity. This curbing alone could lead to large turnover rates as for many creative and technological ingenuity turns out to be DELI. Growth is essential and as the company grows the company should see that its employees are satisfied with their work in spite of the growth and should take necessary steps to retain them

iv.

Infosys adopted a non compromiser approach towards hiring people who identified with the core values of Infosys. But its difficult to identify people who identifies with the core values of Infosys and who is skilled. Therefore Infosys experienced the hiring as a challenge due to the difficulty involved in finding suitable employees. As the company was on the growth phase they should have hired skilled workers and then should provide them training at the very inception so that they adhere by the core values of the company.

v.

There was large amount of intake of employees as client expected speedy delivery and high efficiency.

Mass intakes would lead to high retrenchment rate as the employees need not find the job to be of their liking or to what they had expected. Company should recruit people on identifying their likings and need and if the job would satisfy their DELI.

vi.

Infosys was ranked as the best employer and hence they absorbed all the people who were given the offer letter and absorbed all. But Infosys didnt have enough vacancies for all of them