Sasken: Pay's Where the Buck Stops

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Bangalore-based embedded solutions player enters the BES rankings for the first time at an impressive overall rank of #6 largely driven by very high employee satisfaction. It ranks #3 on employee parameters, replacing IBM and beating TCS by a very close margin. 

Sasken topped the charts on company culture and job content and growth opportunities and came in at #3 on training and people in the company. The only relative issues of concern were salary and compensation (Ranked 10th), composite satisfaction (Ranked 8th) and overall satisfaction at Rank 7. 

Employees have given the company a very strong rating on things like transparency of policies and procedures, openness to employee suggestions, work value and ethics. There is also a very high sense of excitement about the technology they are working on and a strong belief that the work they do is crucial to the company's growth.

Key areas that make a workplace exciting also show up very well. A good 86% say people around them are passionate about their work; 86% say they have freedom to make decisions on their own work; 87% say people treat each other with respect within the company; and a good 92% people believe they are treated fairly. Immediate managers don't fair too badly, but in comparison to the rest of the parameters-they could probably do better. 

The big issue of concern, however, is salary. The company ranked 15th or below on all questions relating to salaries and hikes. Company responsiveness to employee problems also appears to be a little slow. In addition, at 22% it has an extremely high attrition rate; corresponding retention rate is as low as 78%. This is a trouble area at a time when the company is rapidly expanding. That attrition is high despite only 20% of all employees saying they might leave for a 20% hike in salary. The reason is the company has a very highly specialized workforce that, in an expanding market, is in high demand. While keeping employee satisfaction scores high is good, it may sometimes not be enough. Those salary hikes might really be the key.