Employee retention highest in financial sector, manufacturing/PSUs most vulnerable: NFO study

Company press release, December 9, 2003

New Delhi

Attrition the dreaded A word is not just doing the rounds of the BPO sector - its touching the traditional sectors as well.

According to a recent Employee Vulnerable Study by NFO India, employees in the traditional sectors viz. Manufacturing and Engineering, Public Sector Undertakings and Services are most dissatisfied and would hop at the first available opportunity. As opposed to this workforce, employees belonging to new-age sectors viz. Financial Services, Insurance and Banking, including FMCG and White Goods; IT and Telecom - seem relatively more satisfied.

Although, cautions Gautam Nath, Director-Corporate Services for NFO, The overall TRI*M index of 55 for Corporate India denotes possible vulnerability of white-collar workers and thereby should ring alarm bells for HR Heads. So what makes six in every ten employees vulnerable? Interestingly, major pitfalls for the manufacturing sector that was leading to de-motivation levels of the workforce was found to be lack of growth opportunities, dissatisfaction with job content, inadequate emphasis on policies and systems and interpersonal relationships. There is a crying need for companies to engage the employees interest ongoingly by creating a conducive environment for growth, learning, bolster we-feeling and compensate as per industry standards, said Mr. Nath. Afterall, the hidden costs incurred in attracting the right workforce and on-the-job training, is phenomenal. Also if we take into account client business that goes away, each time we lose a key performer, further added Mr. Nath.

Mantab was based on the NFO TRI*M, NFO WorldGroups, Stakeholder Management System. The NFO TRI*M index score provides a measure of the relationship that a given company enjoys with stakeholders or employees.

NFO randomly polled over 200 corporate executives from some leading companies in the business of Manufacturing, Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs), Banking and Finance, Insurance, IT & Telecom, Hospitality among others. The poll was restricted to Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore and aimed to understand motivation levels of employees, reasons for high degree of employee turnover in certain sectors and factors that keep the interest level of employees going.

In the second stage of the poll, NFO also factored in views of experts from leading job portals and HR consultants to understand and get to the core of vulnerability in India Inc.

NFO WorldGroup is one of the worlds leading providers of research-based marketing information and counsel. Marketing minds specializing in research(tm), 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 counsel 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 worlds largest interactive panel communities. NFO is one of the TNS group of companies (LSE: TNN). Visit NFO WorldGroup on the web (www.nfow.com ).

For details, contact:

Madhurima Bhatia

9811206662

E-mail: madhurima.bhatia@nfoindia.com