Adapting to the daily commute after suddenly being pushed towards work-from-home for months or years, and the pressure that came with the transition has made employees more aware of work-life balance. The global post-pandemic great recession has hit India as 86 per cent of professionals are willing to quit jobs, and 60 per cent are even ready to take pay cuts to prioritise personal life, as per Michael Page. Although India’s unemployment rate has surged to 8.6 per cent, corporate India is offering bigger hikes to make employees stay.
Too many counter-offers affect trust among colleagues
A report by Economic Times shows that companies are now offering a raise of up to 100 per cent to retain employees, up from 30 per cent earlier. But this has also created a problem of too many counter offers, which create mistrust among employees, and people backing out at the last moment after accepting new job offers is a headache for HR. Recently EaseMyTrip’s co-founder also tweeted highlighting how candidates reneging after accepting offer letters due to counter-offers, are wasting the time and resources of hirers.
The startup paradox
E-commerce firms and startups are paying a lot more to engineers, as compared to established tech giants, according to a hiring platform Weekday. But it has also been found that while only 18 out of more than 100 unicorns in India are riding on profits, funding has dropped by 73 per cent this year. On the other hand, more than 5000 professionals lost their jobs at startups so far in 2022 alone.
This scenario in corporate India is a world apart from the findings of CMIE’s report, which show that 90 crore Indians of working age aren’t even looking for jobs because they can’t find suitable opportunities. The reasons can vary from lower salaries to working conditions, which also affect women differently in comparison to men.
Attrition is also a major factor behind India Inc’s 10.6 per cent salary hike in 2021-22, which is expected to continue at 10.4 per cent next year.
