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The TRI*M Index: Indicators

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DQI Bureau
New Update

Money Is Most Important

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Across the industry, compensation emerges as the biggest motivator of

employee commitment. This is followed by work environment, job content and

surprisingly, policies and procedures, and finally, training.

Currently, despite the perceived high levels of salary, an across-the-board

dissatisfaction with compensation packages being offered in the industry is very

obvious. And the much talked-about job-content factor, at the moment, is

certainly not being seen as exciting. However, the industry is rated very highly

on its work culture, as is also the case with technology. But technology is

taken as somewhat granted rather than given the status of a major motivator.

Bigger surprises: few people are interested in long-term overseas opportunities

and ESOPs. Instead, the perception is that short trips abroad could have hidden

opportunity for the future, even though their immediate impact on employee

motivation may not be very high. Unfortunately, interpersonal skills, which can

be subliminal motivators, seem to have received little attention from the

industry.

Industry Performance on Overall

Measures

Motivators





A03
Compensation/HR



A06
Job content/career



A09
Policies & procedures



A12
Training & development



A14
Work climate/organization culture



Hidden Opportunities




A05
Interpersonal relationship



A10
Short-term overseas assignment

opportunity




Hygienics




A04
Facilities/support/tools/resources



A08
Performance management system



A11
Technology you are working on



Savers




A01
Communication



A02
Company image



A07
Long-term overseas assignment

opportunity




A13
Wealth creation opportunities through

ESOPs

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Overall Rating: Average

There are two main elements of job satisfaction among software sector

employees: Opportunities to work on challenging projects and on new

technologies. And they are unhappy on both counts. They are more bitter,

however, about the inability to train and work in new technology areas. That is

not likely to change anytime soon. There are only so many projects to go around

and far too many people wanting to work on them.

The areas of concern really lie elsewhere–employees expect that working in

one of the Top 20 companies will provide them ample opportunity for personal and

professional growth. However, they find that they are getting stunted, both

personally and professionally, and the industry’s performance on this count is

below average.

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The only significant exceptions to a general complaint against job content

were Tata Infotech, Cognizant, Pentamedia and DSQ, where job satisfaction among

employees was high. Perhaps the others need to pick up a trick or two from these

companies.

Job Content/Career Development

Motivators





F01
Clarity of roles and responsibilities



F04
Opportunities to work on new and

emerging technologies




F05
Opportunities to develop skills in

technologies used by alliance partners




F06
Opportunities to work on challenging

projects




F08
Fair assignment of workload




Hidden Opportunities




F02
Empowerment–autonomy in

functioning/decision-making and implementation




Hygienics 




F03
Opportunities for professional and

personal growth




F10
At work, your opinion counts



F11
Sufficient time for the family and

social activities




Savers




F07
Having minimum bench-time (time spent

between projects)




F09
Diversity in jobs handled (being

involved in all aspects of the project, from conceptualization to

implementation

Wanted: More Respect, Less Bureaucracy

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Though software employees rate their industry very high in this regard, work

climate and organizational culture encompa- sses a set of attributes which have

different levels of influence on employees. The things software professionals

are most happy with is the reasonably informal dress code–a lesson the

industry took a while to learn More importantly, most of the companies are also

rated high on their work ethics, as well as a certain degree of congeniality

between team members and their immediate bosses–the new legacy of the new age.

The exceptions here are Tata Infotech, Zensar and Pentasoft, whose employees

rated them "average" on work culture. I-flex employees said their

company’s work culture was "far below average". However, at both

I-flex and Zensar, work culture did not contribute significantly to employee

motivation, emerging instead, as a "saver".

There are some surprising elements though. Software employees feel that

despite all the hype on being the new pampered yuppie class, they are not

treated with sufficient fairness and respect within their own organizations.

Bigger surprise–for an industry obsessed with cutting-edge technology and

bright minds, most employees said quality of people in the organization was

mediocre! And the biggest surprise of all–this new economy industry is plagued

with a surprising drawback, stuffiness! Employees complained bitterly about the

highly bureaucratic style of functioning in their companies.

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A more open system and greater freedom for experimentation and risk taking

emerged as hidden opportunities for the future for all companies in the

industry.

Work Climate and Organizational Culture

Motivators



N01
Treatment within the organization with

fairness and respect




N03
Quality of people in the organization



N06
Award/recognition for ‘good work’




Hidden Opportunities




N02
Non-bureaucratic style of working



N11
Team members’ suggestion scheme



N12
Freedom for experimentation




Hygienics




N04
Work ethics & value system of the

company




N05
Sensitive/friendly/courteous colleagues



N08
Discipline in the organization



N09
Morale & motivation of team members



N13
Leadership & Integrity of project

managers




N14
Opportunity to contribute in strategic

decisions within the company




Savers




N07
Dress code within the organization



N10
Freedom to express views

In Time, but not Enough

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It is a widely acknowledged HR fact that the majority of compensation

packages today have been designed to act as employee motivators. It, however, is

quite ironic to see that the only things that seem to give software employees

contentment are the relative trivialities–payment of salaries and conveyance

in time, for instance, and the industry’s performance-linked reward system, to

quite a great extent.

The last factor, however, has undergone a slight change in the last month or

so, with the slowdown affecting salary hikes, especially in companies like

Infosys technologies, Pentamedia and Pentasoft, where large hikes have been the

norm rather than the exception.

Employee feedback, however, seems to deny this trend. Barring employees at

Mahindra-British Telecom, hardly any others appeared to be happy with their

salaries. IBM Global employees said their salaries were lower than industry

standards, though that did not affect employee motivation much. And Wipro

Technologies' employees rated their salaries as "average", adding that

their stated importance was high, but the real impact on employee motivation was

insignificant. It was, of course, technology that kept people here going.

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Compensation and HR Services

Motivators



C01
Compensation as per industry standards



C02
Compensation as per role and

responsibility




C03
Designation as per role and

responsibility




C04
Perks and other benefits



C05
Compensation while on overseas assignment



C07
Reimbursement of conveyance, other

expenses on time




C08
Awareness of company’s policies and

procedures




C09
Performance-linked reward system



Hidden Opportunities




C10
Flexibility of compensation package to

facilitate tax planning requirement




Hygienics




C06
Payment of salaries on time

All Frills

Industry wide, this is a hygiene factor: people in software companies expect

that some basic facilities will naturally be there. Well, sometimes they aren’t!

Pretty much like compensation, the industry performs well on the trivialities:

clean and aesthetic workplace, easy access to tea and coffee, quality of office

equipment and availability of office boys. The surprise and the trouble spots

are the more crucial facilities–or the lack of them.

Systems and procedures for project management and execution–the bread and

butter factors–are rated "average", as is the availability of

facilities like libraries and the availability of reference materials. But what

employees complain most bitterly about is the lack of high-speed Internet

access!

There were some company-specific surprises here though. Facilities emerged as

motivators in three companies–IBM, IIS Infotech and I-flex. Of these, IBM and

I-flex were rated highly on their facilities. While, its employees rated Infosys–spoken

about, written about and with a large investment of time and money on facilities–"average"

on this count!

Facilities/Support/Tools/Resources

Hidden opportunities





D02
Transport to/from office provided by the

company




Hygienics




D06
Having systems and procedures in place

for project executions and management




D07
Availability of high speed internet

access




D08
Availability of facilities like library,

reference materials




Savers




D01
Physical location of the office



D03
Appearance and aesthetics of the work

place




D04
Cleanliness & Quality of the work

place




D05
Quality of office equipment (systems/ IT

equipments)




D09
Ease of access to facilities like

tea/coffee/refreshment




D10
Availability of support staff/office boys



D11
Availability of recreation facilities on

site (like gym, health club, indoor court, etc




D12
Availability of voice mail facility on

telephone




D13
Availability of travel desk facilities -

for ticketing, visa, foreign exchange, etc.




D14
Availability of help desk to care take of

issues like bill payment, children’s school admission, locating houses,

utilities like plumbing, carpentry, electrical.
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