Strategic - Engagement And Attrition - Aditya Yadav

1. *
“Running an Agile Fortune 500 Company”
Aditya Yadav, aditya.yadav@gmail.com
in.linkedin.com/in/adityayadav76

2. * A Typical Global Company
* Fortune 500/1000
* 200 Divisions
* 40 Countries
* 25000 Employees
*

3. *
@ Acme Inc.

4. * Original Question “We need to Control Attrition
in comparison to the Industry Average. Isn‟t it
the worst thing to happen to an Organization?
To lose its people?”
* The Correct Question - “Lets relook at Attrition
in the Larger Context from various
perspectives. Is it that bad? And when is it bad?
”
*

5. * Attrition is a Huge Cost and a Loss to the
organization
* We need to minimize Attrition
* Lets divide attrition into (i) Desirable, and (ii)
Undesirable Attrition and minimize the second.
* We also need to concentrate on Employee
Engagement
* Help!!! We are losing our Grip On Success!!!
*

6. * Lets Measure Employee Engagement
* Quantify it… and
* Tie it to Revenues using an Empirical Formula
* …And Track Employee Engagement „Value‟
Continuously
* It affects
* Employee Productivity, Performance, Efficiency
* Customer Satisfaction
* Profits
*…
*

7. * You need to Avoid Complexity
* Also, Traditional Employee Engagement Exercises Strain The
Organization and are a Huge Overhead
* Google People Analytics Research says – Initiative has the
highest correlation to Personal and Business success
compared to Skills, Education, Experience etc…
* Incidentally Initiative also has an extremely strong
correlation with Engagement
* The Primary Business of a Knowledge Company is
“Innovation”
* Together (i) #Initiative(s),(ii) #Innovation(s) & (iii) Growth is
an easy and sufficient measure of Employee Engagement and
has an inverse correlation with Attrition also [That‟s why this
presentation is about both Engagement and Attrition]
*

8. * The Current Definition of Desired Attrition is only based on
“Unsatisfactory Current Performance”
* We need to define it as (i) Poor Innovation, (iii) Poor Initiative, and
(iii) Poor Growth/Up-Or-Out-Policy
* Controlling Costs is the Traditional „Manager‟ Thinking and Focus i.e.
Command and Control, Status Quo, Cost and Risk Minimization etc.
* It is based on the Fallacy that controlling costs alone will lead to
Business Success
* In reality – “You can't cost cut your way back to prosperity”
* A Leaders Focus is “Innovation”, “The Future” and “Change”. We
should look at Attrition with only this Perspective.
* Also, nobody states the True Reason why they are leaving, Any Exit
Analysis at the Point of Exit is Impossible and Futile
*

9. * Engineer, to * Role 1, Company 1
* Sr. Engineer, to
* Team Lead, to * Role 2, Company 2
* Engineering Manager * Role 3, Company 3
* Sr. Engineering Manager * Role 4, Company 4
* Director
* Sr. Director * Role 5, Company 5
* VP * Role 6, Company 6
* Sr. VP
*… * Role 7, Company 7
*

10. * Leads to Highest Innovation, Learning and Performance
* Besides Self Motivation, Engagement and Satisfaction
* Isn‟t these what you have been trying to achieve all along???
* People move around Building Companies and Giving their Best to Every
Company in the Valley
* The Valley is a Leaders, Entrepreneurs and Top Notch Employee „Paradise‟
* Its perhaps the biggest Innovation Ecosystem in the World (Or a Cluster in
Economics Terms)
* You have to communicate the Expectation of the Silicon Valley Career
Graph to your Prospective Employees (Like Some Elite Consulting
Companies)
* You have to extract the best of Innovations and Performance out of your
Incoming Employees
* Don‟t Build Your Organization on „Retention‟
* Build it on the Assumption of Innovation and Continuous Churn Models
*

11. * Accept and Embrace Change
* Attrition is Inevitable and quite Desirable with the right Organizational Constructs in place
* Salary + Total Training Costs (Incurred & Forecasted) + Overheads => Billing Rate/Transfer Price
* Absolutely Avoid Specialists who break your organization when they move out. (This is the only reason
why Managers feel the need to control attrition)
* Attrition Cost Antidotes: Generalists, Bottom Up Organization, Collaboration, Team Accountability,
Knowledge Ecosystem…
* Always hire 2 Categories of people (i) Generalists [The Majority], and (ii) Ph.D.'s / Super-Specialists
[Niche] and manage the latter differently
* The Only Two Things You Need To Analyze
* Attrition, and
* Engagement
* Are
* #Initiative(s),
* #Innovation(s), and
* Growth
*

12. *
And The Philosophy Behind The Answer

13. Aditya!!!
*