New Delhi, Nov 12: Reeling under high attrition in a labour-intensive industry, IT and BPO companies are now setting their eyes on job referrals by their employees with a twin-aim to retain the existing workforce and expand it as well.

Employees have emerged as the key asset for companies engaged in the information technology and related services. But, frequent job-hopping and a high attrition rate have become a key deterrent for this growth story, even as the entire talent pool is getting smaller compared to the high growth rates coming their way.

With an aim to tackle this crisis, the companies are now encouraging their employees with cash incentives and other rewards to refer friends and acquaintances for jobs with their organisations. According to the industry experts, 30-60% hiring is already being done through this channel, which originally started in the US and other Western countries and is now catching up fast in India.

“We are hiring more than 32% of employees through referrals," Nasdaq-listed Indian BPO service provider EXL Services" vice-president and Global Head of Human Resources Deepak Dhawan said.

“The process saves a lot of time and cost that the company would otherwise need to spend while recruiting through conventional channels," Dhawan said. “Hiring through employee referrals is on an upswing with about 50% new employees being sourced through this method," Xansa India"s senior vice-president (Human Resources) Vikram Karayi said.

Xansa is a UK-based outsourcing and technology firm with over 8,000 employees in the UK and India.Employee-referral is a policy for encouraging employees, usually through cash incentives, to nominate potential job candidates and is part of the overall recruiting process. “More than 60% of the recruitments we do are through the referral channel titled 'Bring In Your Buddy" scheme," domestic IT firm Patni Computer Systems" senior vice-president (HR) Deepak Khosla said. The practice has helped Patni save costs on hiring advertisements it had to place for attracting candidates, he added.

 

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