The Top 10: 4 - RMSI: A Minor Setback

Few outside the IT industry know what RMSI does; but everyone
knows it is as an employer of choice, thanks to it performing well in most
employee surveys, including cross-industry ones. Yet, if the company slipped by
a couple of positions in the BES Top 20 survey this year, it was primarily
because of a temporary rise in attrition rates. Also, the fact that its revenues
showed a decline last year meant that its HR score was also negatively affected.

The attrition rates, which reached 16% during November-January,
forced the company to analyze the cause: RMSI found that it was losing its
employees to BPO and KPO firms. Fortunately, it was not losing too many
employees to application development companies. Operating in the niche GIS space
the advantage lies in having the workforce motivated and satisfied with the job
content.

Theyre not working on mundane application development and are
able to find more technically challenging work. But that realization prompted
RMSI to initiate a mid-term review, but, more importantly, RMSI decided to
benchmark itself against BPOs and KPOs, which it had hitherto ignored. This
helped arrest attrition.

Gagan Jyot, head, HR
High Ratings Industry rank Relevance of perks and benefits 2 Fairness of appraisal system 2 Recognition of initiatives and efforts at the time of appraisal 2 Low Ratings Standard of corporate governance 3 Best Showing Policies & procedures 1 Job content 2 Organization culture/ work climate 3

The employees were satisfied on most areas including perks and
the appraisal system. Recognition of efforts also kept the company from losing
its employees to other software development houses and to companies in its own
domain areas. Policies and procedures was one area that got a clear thumbs-up
from employees.

Operating in a niche technical domain has its share of
advantages as well as challenges for RMSI. A key challenge the company faces is
finding the right workforce and talent. The current policy is to mostly train
people in-house and focus on campus recruitment. One of the focus areas for RMSI
over the last one year has been talent management and career progression through
its dual career progression plantechnical and managerial leaders based on
core competencies. Last year, RMSI also focused its efforts on leadership
development.