High Engagement & Low Attrition – a Study of the Telecom Industry in India

The Indian Telecommunications network is the third largest in the world and the second largest among the emerging economies of Asia. The telecom sector has been one of the fastest growing sectors in the Indian economy in the past 4 years. This has been witnessed due to strong competition that has brought down tariffs as well as simplification of policy environment that has promoted healthy competition among various players. The growth of the industry prompted the government to allow more players on the field leading to an intense price war in an attempt to garner market share. This ultimately led to dwindling revenues per user and dented the balance sheets of most players. The increased number of market players also led to large scale migration of intellectual capital between organizations. Managing employee turnover has thus become a major challenge for the Telecom industry, especially in India. This has led organizations to focus on methods and techniques to increase employee engagement and reduce attrition. It is now well understood by organizations that employee engagement is the force that drives performance outcomes. Employee engagement is a human resources initiative that lays the strategic foundation for the way organizations do business. Employee Engagement is a measurable degree of an employee's emotional attachment to their job environment. It profoundly influences their willingness to learn and perform at work. Employee engagement is distinctively different from employee satisfaction, motivation and organizational culture. The purpose of this paper is to investigate employee engagement and its relationship to employee attrition using a mixed method research design. The first phase of the research involved a survey on a sample of 280 employees in various telecom companies using questionnaires, focused group interviews and group discussions. Focused group interviews and discussions were based on identifying the primary reasons for attrition and addressing the unique problem of employee engagement. In the second phase a sample was chosen at random and the exit interview data of an organization, spanning a period of three years, for further analysis (factor & content)