Franklin Puritan or Enlightenment Essay - 868 Words

Is Franklin a Puritan or Enlightenment Thinker About Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin came from a very simple Calvinist background. Ha dad little formal education, but he made it through his own efforts and became a rare genius in human history. Everything seems to meet in this one man, mind and will, talent and art, strength and ease, wit and grace and he became almost everything: a printer, essayist, scientist, statesman, philosopher, political economist, ambassador, etc.-#161;#176;Jack of all trades#161;#177;. Enlightenment in America Toward the latter part of the 17th century, a complete new view of the universe came into being. With the publication of Newton#161;#175;s #161;#176;Philosophiae Naturalis†¦show more content†¦They thought that religious truth also should be tested by reason. This was a great challenge to the former thoughts. Man#161;#175;s reason and the idea of order became the watchword of the day. Everything fell into some order, like Newton#161;#175;s #161;#176;clock#161;#177; and all had a place in the divine plan. 3. Pursuit of Happiness People with enlightenment thinking turned to pursue the happiness of the present world rather than the salvation in the after world. They showed more interest in the practical subjects in the real world. They thought that the ultimate objective of man#161;#175;s life is the life, liberty and pursuit of life. This kind of thought stimulated an activist individualism which advocated that one should be responsible of his own choice and attempt unalienable Rights. All these ideas were very much in the air in America and no one represented them better than Benjamin Franklin. With Benjamin Franklin as its spokesman, eighteen-century America experienced an age if enlightenment, of reason and order like England and Europe. Puritan Heritage Though Newton#161;#175;s idea was very influential over the minds of the people in the 18th century, the Calvinist beliefs and tenets that man was, since the Fall, basically evil and enslaved by his sense of sin, and that God was all, and would in His mercy and love work for man#161;#175;s salvation, but as for man. All he could do (if ever there was anything he could do)Show MoreRelatedThe Puritan And The Embodiment Of Enlightenment1228 Words   |  5 PagesThe Puritan and the Embodiment of Enlightenment The dichotomy between a Puritan and a Rationalist seems to be very apparent. Despite the differences, the very existence of these two writers showcases the need for dissent to influence, and to always question the status-quo. Anne Bradstreet and Benjamin Franklin give a glimpse of the time period during the creation of their works. 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Shrugging Off Positive Ayn Rand Essay - 1687 Words

When one imagines a positive person in society, many people may come to mind. Abraham Lincoln, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., and many more are positive influences on the society of the world today. A positive influence in the society is someone who lets his or her beliefs be known in a respectful way, are non-violent, and do not force opinions on anyone else. Ayn Rand is a positive influence on society because she was an author who wrote philosophical novels that showed her views in a non-violent manner, she revolutionized thought processes, advanced views of society, and remained objective, practicing objectivism. Ayn Rand was born in Russia in a middle-class home in 1905. In 1917, the Communist party took over the government in†¦show more content†¦A positive influence on society has many traits. The lack of violence in expressing his or her opinion is crucial to being a positive influence. If someone were to use violence while expressing his or her opinion, this wou ld be negative influence because violence is negative. Non-violent expression of feelings and views is the way to show any group of people respect and it is substantially more likely to get the message across and it will be taken in as positive. Revolutionizing thought processes is also another important trait for a positive influence on society. In the case of Ayn Rand, she wrote novels, and she used such vivid language and real world applications that it made people think so deeply, thus causing a reaction in their brain that opened their eyes to a whole new line of thought. Advancing views of society is also a necessity for a positive influence on society to have. Imagine if nobody ever stood up for women’s rights or the telephone was never thought of. To bring positivity to a society, one must bring to the table what no one else has yet, and have a real plan for how it works. According to Luis De Jesus, a writer for the Ayn Rand Institute foundation website, as an objecti vist, one must accept the fact that existence exists. For someone to exist, they must acquire a specific identity. Remaining objective means to reject emotions, faith, or any form of

Organisational Context Medibank Travel Insurance

Question: Write a report on Medibank Travel Insurance. Answer: Background summary Insurance is a process by which one party agrees to compensate the other party in case of certain events happening. This cover is provided by the first party in return of payment of a certain amount called premium by the second party. There are different types of insurances like life insurance, health insurance, general insurance, etc. people have become more aware of the need to insure themselves against different types of risks which can cause financial and physical losses to the individuals. As the demand for insurance products grew over a period, the number of companies providing insurance services has also grown. In Australia also there are several companies providing insurance. The general insurance companies in Australia have existed for a long period of time. The insurance industry in Australia is regulated by a prudential regulator called Australian Prudential Regulation Authority. This authority is concerned with the implementation of Insurance Act. Further there is a corporate regulator called Australian Securities and Investment Commission which follows Insurance Contracts Act. There is also an organization of the general insurance industry of Australia called Insurance Council of Australia. This organization also creates awareness about general insurance issues among the people (Insurance Council Of Australia, 2016). The general insurance industry in Australia is characterized by high degree of competition among insurance firms. There are also many fluctuations in the earnings of the insurers. The Global Financial Crisis of 2008 affected the general insurance industry in Australia adversely (Accenture, 2016). Further, floods and other natural disasters in 2010-2011 also led to increased claims by people who had taken insurance policies. This created financial problems for the insurance industry in Australia. A large amount of reserves with the insurance companies were used for settling claims of customers. But the insurance industry has recovered from such setbacks. It has to face more challenges as customers have become more price sensitive. They have become more aware of the insurance products and compare insurance policies offered by different companies before making a purchase decision. Medibank Private Limited is one of the leading insurance companies of Australia (Medibank Private Limited, 2016). The company has been doing well in selling different types of insurance products, but its market share in the travel insurance business is lesser than that of many other companies. Medibank has planned to launch again its travel insurance business. There is the need for the company to follow a new marketing strategy to increase its travel insurance business. Products and service There are a variety of reasons that make people buy a travel insurance policy. There are individuals who have apprehensions that their luggage might get lost while they are travelling. They want insurance so that they get compensated if such a thing happens. Some of them feel that they would suffer if their important documents get lost during a journey. Further there are many who are worried about the medical expenses in a foreign country. Medibank should look thoroughly into the purposes for which people buy insurance while designing its travel insurance products. The company should offer a comprehensive travel insurance plan that compensates for lost luggage, medical expenses, flight accidents, etc. Further the consumer should be provided the option to cover for expenses arising out of cancellation of trip. The idea is to cover all the important objectives for which the consumers buy travel insurance. There is need for proper market research by the company (Zimmerman and Blythe, 2013). In this case premium to be paid by the customer would vary according to the number of options the customer has selected. The company should focus primarily on the proper development and promotion of this insurance plan also because it would cover the needs of different types of people like those going on a vacation, educational tours, visiting relatives, etc (Ettlie and Rosenthal, 2011). the company should set up the goal of earning maximum revenues by selling this insurance plan. Instead of having too many insurance policies the firm should focus a large proportion of its energy in making this insurance plan a success. Apart from the above discussed insurance plan, the company should also have insurance policies tailored to meet the needs of business people and those travelling for medical purposes. The company should aim to provide professional services relating to issues like claim settlement, medical services in hospitals abroad and any other required documentation. The enterprise should make use of latest technology in offering its services. The company should have processes which are transparent and fair for the customers. Pricing Medibank wants to beat the competition in the travel insurance sector. One of the most important tools to achieve this objective is to fix the prices of its insurance policies, that is, premiums, at a lower level than its competitors (Zielke, 2010). The company needs to bring down the cost of operating its business. This can be achieved by having innovative processes and better training of its employees. The company needs to be agile and respond to the needs of its customers with speed. The decision making in the company should be quick. The claims of customers should not be kept pending for too long. When the customer contacts the company, then the executives of the enterprise should be prompt and show empathy. As the company lowers its premiums, the volume of its business is expected to rise as the consumers in the insurance sector of Australia are very particular and sensitive about the price of an insurance policy. The customers are looking for value for their money. As Medibank provides good quality services for a reasonable price, its customers in the travel insurance space would increase (Steenkamp, Heerde and Geyskens, 2010). Medibank has been doing well in other types of insurance like health and life insurance. People in Australia know about the company. The company can convey to its customers that lower premiums do not mean lower quality of service. The enterprise should have the objective of reducing or cutting costs without compromising on quality. Further while fixing premiums for travel insurance policies, the company should take into consideration factors like the total cost of the tour, its length, age of people being insured and the number of insurance covers that the customer wants. Place and distribution Medibank makes use of modern technology to sell its travel insurance policies. Any individual can buy an insurance policy of the company by applying online at the enterprises website. The company has kept the procedure for buying the insurance policies online simple (Lunt and Carrera, 2011). There is some information that the customers have to provide and they get a quotation. But Medibank should provide more information to a consumer when the individual uses the online process for buying travel insurance policy of the company. There are many online customers who buy an insurance policy only after comparing the insurance policies of different companies. Medibank should provide a comparison of the features of insurance products of the company with that of the insurance policies of the other companies in a concise way to the online consumers. The information should be provided in an attractive way. The company should aim to sell a large proportion of its insurance policies online. This method is also less costly and less time consuming. The company should strengthen its information technology section to help the marketing department in making sales online. The company needs to properly organize its online operations. The company should develop more advanced application (software) that can be downloaded by consumers on their mobile phones. This software would help the consumers buy insurance products of the company online. The effort of the company should be to make the process of buying insurance from the company more convenient for the consumers. Medibank also sells its insurance policies through intermediaries like brokers and travel agents (Manzano and Valpuesta, 2010). The company should organize workshops and training events for the agents and brokers. The company should provide them with more detailed information regarding its insurance products. Further there can be sessions to teach communication and marketing skills to these people. Medibank should also provide competitive commission and benefits to these people (Eckardt and Doppner, 2010). Promotional mix The market for insurance products in Australia is very competitive. Medibank Private Limited is one of the leading sellers of life insurance and health insurance in Australia. The company has an identity in the market. The enterprise should make use of this goodwill created over a period while selling its travel insurance products also. The company should convey in its promotional messages in the media that the same company with excellent management skills, knowledge and products has now come with better travel insurance products. The firm should do some introspection regarding how the company has been able to do so well in selling the other kinds of insurance products (Zimmerman and Blythe, 2013). Medibank should try to associate with travel and tourism programs on television and radio. The company can also sponsor sports events especially adventure sports like skiing and rowing held in tourist destinations to target the people who visit such places. The firm can make its website provide more information and if possible make it interactive (Lunt and Carrera, 2011). The idea is to create an inclination in the consumer to travel by showing how enjoying and safe the experience can be if the consumer has brought travel insurance from the company. Conclusion Insurance industry is a very important part of any country as it helps people face numerous types of risks. In case of any tragic incident happening, the insurance firm bears the cost out of the premiums collected by it from a large number of people. But in case of losses being very large, even the insurance companies find their resources too stretched. There is element of risk for the companies also. In Australia such a situation arises when there are natural problems like floods. The insurance companies therefore need to decide with utmost care what premiums to charge from their customers. There is lot of competition in the insurance industry in Australia. The companies cannot charge too high premiums but they have to charge a sufficient amount so that they do not find themselves facing liquidation in case of natural disaster happening. The insurance business needs to be carried out in a professional way. Some companies find it difficult to survive in insurance industry. Medibank, as a company, should realize that competition is part of business. Further the enterprise needs to understand what its competitors are doing to be more successful. The firm should see whether it is not getting repeat customers due to its poor service. The company should train its employees better. After a customer buys the insurance from the company, the person should get the service promised by the firm. It is sometimes easier to build expectations but difficult to live up to them. References Accenture (2016) How Australian Insurers Can Achieve Profitable Growth In A Challenging Market Overview. A Eckardt, M. and Doppner, S. (2010) The Quality Of Insurance Intermediary Services: Empirical Evidence For Germany, Journal of Risk And Insurance, 77(3), pp. Ettlie, J. and Rosenthal, S. (2011) Service Versus Manufacturing Innovation, Journal of Product Innovation Management, 28(2), pp. 285-299, Insurance Council Of Australia (2016) Issues And Submissions. Lunt, N. and Carrera, P. (2011) Systematic Review Of Web Sites For Prospective Medical Tourists, Tourism Review, 66(1/2), pp. 57-67, Manzano, J. and Valpuesta, L. (2010) The Decline Of The Traditional Travel Agent Model, Transportation Research Part E: Logistics And Transportation Review.

The Courage To Stand Alone Essays - Fiction, Literature, Film

The Courage To Stand Alone The Courage to Stand Alone In the 1950's, Reginald Rose penned his masterpiece, 12 Angry Men. This play introduces us to twelve men of various statures. All of these men are part of the jury who will decide the fate of a young man, who has been accused of murdering his father. At first glance of the testimonies of the witnesses in the trial, the reader, or audience, would probably agree with the norm of the jury on the guilt of the young man. If it weren't for one character in this play, juror No. 8, the deliberations of this trial would have been non-existent. At the end of this story, another juror, No. 3, states his nearly impenetrable opinion, nearly causing a hung jury. After reading or watching this play, the audience has some insight into the fact that despite how unfavourable a persons opinion may be, it is the courage to hold ones ground - sometimes with no other support but from him/herself - that must be recognized as a virtue. This story starts off in the courtroom with the jurors making their way to the deliberation room to talk about and vote on the fate of the accused. A vote is cast to see where they stand with one another on their opinions. The men have various reasons for voting the ways they do. Take, for example, who No. 7 says, ?This better be fast. I've got tickets to The Seven Year Itch tonight? , or No. 2 who is ?a meek, hesitant man who finds it difficult to maintain any opinions of his own. Easily swayed and usually adopts the opinion of the last person to whom he has spoken?, and No. 3 whose son won't talk to him anymore because of his father's bitterness against young people. Some of the other men on the jury believe that ?you can't believe a word [people from the slums] say?, and since the boy is from the slums, they don't believe his testimony. It is only juror No. 8 who came into the jurors room with a non-bias attitude and who left his personal baggage at the door. He believes that ?may be we owe him a few words?, but the others believe that they ?don't owe him a thing?. The evidence against the accused convinces all the jurors of the boys guilt, except for juror No. 8. The evidence that has convinced the rest of the jurors soon gets analyzed by juror No. 8, which causes the others think twice about their verdict. The reason why juror No. 8 went into such detail about all of the evidence is because ?[He] had a peculiar feeling about this trial. Somehow [he] felt that the defense never really conducted a thorough cross-examination. [He] mean[s], [the defense lawyer] was appointed by the court to defend the boy. He hardly seemed interested. Too many questions were left unasked.? There were three pieces of evidence that the prosecution brought up, which each on its own, could have probably convinced a jury of the boy's guilt: the obscure knife, and the two witnesses: the old man , the neighbour downstairs, and the woman, the neighbour from across the street. All of these key pieces of evidence were looked over in the jurors room. Nobody but juror No. 8 saw the flaws with each. Take, for example, the rare switch-knife - which we find out to be not-so-rare - that the boy had bought from a local corner store. ?The storekeeper identified it and said it was the only one of its kind he had in stock.? This testimony had convinced eleven of the jurors until juror No. 8 ?swiftly flicks open the blade of a switch-knife and jams it into the table next to the first one (knife). They are exactly alike.? After this incident, another juror sided with juror No. 8. Next, the old man's and the woman from across the street's testimonies gets put to their tests. Like juror No. 3 said, ?[T]he old man heard the kill yell, ?I'm gonna kill you.' A second later he heard the father's body falling, and he saw the boy running out of the house

Failure of Accord Hybrid

The Prince

The Prince had no actual characters, but instead discussed and analyzed the political policies of political leaders, highlighting their faults and strengths. The setting was 1513 Europe. This is the same time when major areas were having power struggles and religious conflict was rampant. His tone is that of the ambitious leader. It conveys the thoughts of one who knows how to gain and maintain power. Though this is true, the thoughts are built upon principalities probably learned by way of many mistakes made by one who will never again be in the position to imply his theorems and strategies. Machiavelli's own ruthless mind probably served as the bases for him knowing the ways of the corrupt. The thesis seems to be that the ends justify the means. Chapters such as the one describing "How one should govern cities or principalities that, before being conquered, used to live under their own laws" show Machiavelli's thirst for power and highlights a stressed point of his. This point is that one must learn how to maintain power before gaining it for it can be as easily lost as gained. It was conveyed in his writings that even minor power is more useful if it can be maintained, where major power that cannot be maintained is a mere missed opportunity. This dissertation stressed the maintaining of power because it was written from Machiavelli to His Magnificence Lorenzo de' Medici, a figure whom was already holding power. "It is better to be feared than loved," is a popular extraction from Machiavelli's dissertation. He stated, "Men are less hesitant about offending or harming a ruler who makes himself loved than one who inspires fear. For love is sustained by a bond of gratitude which, because men are excessively self-interested, is broken whenever they see a chance to benefit themselves. But fear is sustained by a dread of punishment that is always effective." Machiavelli went on to discuss the strategies of r

The Listening Skills Yeah Whatever Video and The Out of Office Reply Essay

The Listening Skills Yeah Whatever Video and The Out of Office Reply Video - Essay Example Pilar tells Miguel that he needs to have a system in place that tracks spending or tell his assistant to take over this responsibility. She even looks at the possibility of their having a meeting once a week. Miguel appears over the moon at his success and is not looking at Pilar, twiddling with his pen, taking a phone call and appearing generally disrespectful and self-absorbed. In the second part of the video, taken three weeks later, Miguel is seen coming to Pilar’s office and asking for a meeting with her. He has just heard that he has been taken off Jezebel’s account and seems shocked and unbelieving that this has happened. Pilar tells him that they had already had a meeting on his weaknesses the last time but he did not seem to acknowledge or want to understand the reality of the situation. In the second meeting, however, Miguel appeared to have come down to earth and is more attentive to Pilar’s instructions. Pilar tells him that it was Jezebel’s de cision to themselves replace him with Jack for the remainder of their campaign. She is, however, willing to give him another chance to make amends and tells him that he has to send in a report every Friday on the spending position of every account under him and that they could meet every Tuesday at 2.00 pm to discuss the issues that appear. This time clearly Miguel is more receptive and even notes the time of the Tuesday meeting in his appointment book or diary and tells Pilar that he will definitely send the spending report in by Friday as needed. On her part, Pilar says that she did not want to lose the Jezebel account and had no choice but to go with the client’s suggestion. Once the situation has settled down, however, Pilar tells Miguel that she will try to give him back the Jezebel account. In the Out of Office Reply video, we have the meeting between Ralph Ramos, the Senior Claims Manager and Angela Zanoni, a Claims Investigator. Angela has been working from home but i t seems that performance issues are cropping up. She is piqued that Bob Simmons has told her that he is getting better accounts to deal with while she feels that she is being sidelined because she is working from home and therefore not visible to Ralph. Ralph assures her that this is not the case and that both she and Bob have different skill sets and that he gives the employees the accounts to be handled based on their past relationships with the client. While he would not feel comfortable handling Angela the accounts that Bob had been handling in the past, he would also not give Bob her accounts so she is misinformed. At the end of the first meeting they set up and appointment to meet again, but in the second video recorded two weeks later, it appears that Angela has failed to keep her appointment. Always the gentleman, Ralph first tries to put Angela at ease by asking her a personal question about how she is and how things are at home, but it seems that Angela misreads him becaus e she is preoccupied. On probing into the matter further because it is not like Angela to miss a deadline-she has not done so in the four years they have worked together- Ralph finds out that Angela had missed the deadline because she felt that nothing fruitful would have come out of it.

Web Content Outlier Mining Through Using Web Datasets Research Paper

Web Content Outlier Mining Through Using Web Datasets - Research Paper Example The amount of knowledge sought by an individual is always very specific. Search of specific knowledge from the huge databases and data warehouses has become an essential need. Knowledge seekers while surfing web content on internet, come across large amount of information which is irrelevant to the subject of search and it is generally referred as web content outlier. This research investigates different methods of extracting outliers from web contents. Using web contents as data sets, it is aimed to find an algorithm which extract and mine varying contents of web documents of same category. Structure of HTML is used in this paper with various available techniques to model for mining web content outliers. Web content outlier’s mining using web datasets and finding outlier in them. In this modern time, the information is overloaded with huge databases, data warehouses and websites. The growth of internet and uploading and storing of information in bulk on websites is exponentia l. Accessibility of information is also made very easy for common man through internet and web-browser technology. The structure of web is global, dynamic, and enormous which has made it necessary to have tools for automated tracking and efficient analyzing of web data. This necessity of automated tools has started the development of systems for mining web contents. Extracting data is also referred as knowledge discovery in datasets. The process of discovering patterns which are interesting and useful and the procedures for analyzing and establishing their relationships are described as data mining. Most of the algorithms used today in data mining technology find patterns that are frequent and eliminate those which are rare. These rare patterns are described as noise, nuisance or outliers. (Data mining, 2011) The process of mining data involves three key steps of computation. First step is the process of model-learning. Second step is the model evaluation and the third step is the u se of the model. To clearly understand this division, it is necessary to classify data. (Data mining, 2011) The first step in data mining is the model learning. It is the process in which unique attributes are found about a group of data. The attributes classify the group and based on it an algorithm is built which defines the class of the group and establishes its relationship. Dataset with their attributes known are used to test this algorithm, generally called classifier. Results produced by the classifier assist in determining minimum requirements for accepting data of the known class. It gives the amount of accuracy of the model and if the accuracy is acceptable, the model is used to determine the similarity of each document or data in a dataset. (Data mining, 2011) The second step in data mining is the model evaluation. Techniques used for evaluating the model depend largely on the known attributes of data and knowledge types. The objectives of data users determine the tasks f or data mining and types of analysis. These tasks include Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA), Descriptive Modeling, Predictive Modeling, Discovering Patterns and Rules, and Retrieval by Content. Outliers are generally found through anomaly detection, which is to find instances of data that are unusual and unfit to the established pattern. (Data mining, 2011) Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) show small data sets interactively and visually in the form of a pie chart or coxcomb plot. Descriptive Modeling is the technique that shows overall data distribution such as density estimation, cluster analysis and segmentation, and dependency modeling. Predictive Modeling uses variables having known values to predict the value of a single unknown variable. Classification

Paraphrasing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Paraphrasing - Essay Example The bony structure of the lumbar spine, unlike the body’s thoracic spine, lacks lateral support but is a specialized structure designed to distribute the weight of heavy loads throughout the back. It consists primarily of trabeculae, a highly vascularized cancellous bone, which is organized in a fashion to redistribute stress throughout the spine. The size of these vertebral bodies progressively increases in direct relation to the augmentation of gravitational loads from the cephalic to the caudal segments of the spine. These segments are connected with ligaments and muscular tissue to each concurring segment located above or below the bony structure. The composition of the body’s intervertebral disc consists primarily of outer annulus fibrosis, which holds the transmitting nociceptors and proprioceptive nerve endings, and the inner nucleus pulposus. Nociception is the process whereby chemical responses to interpret pain or sensation and illicit physical reactions from the brain to the central nervous system, including basic movement. The signals are sent through peripheral neural pathways and are received by the outer annulus fibrosis, posterior longitudinal ligament, facet capsule and the associated muscle groups located in the particular segment of the spine. The composition of the inner annulus, which holds the nucleus, provides the spinal disc with supplemental support during instances of compression. A healthy nucleus pulposus consists of the majority of the surface area of each spinal disc, supporting seven-tenths of the compression against each disc. During the course of adolescence, bone growth balances the proportionate decrease of disc height and loading pressure shifts posteriorly. Over the course of an individual’s development, the overgrowth of bone structures and the inherent hypertrophy of facets lead to the narrowing of central canals and progressive foraminal.

Growth of the IT Sector in India

Growth of the IT Sector in India ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my supervisor JONATHAN C WESTLAKE for his insurmountable guidance and tremendous encouragement throughout this research. Without him I couldnt get effective results in this research. His precious inputs and valuable suggestions helped me throughout my research. I would like to thank my award leader PHILLMICKLEBURGH for his wonderful support and advice in technical and personal matters throughout my course and project work. I would like to thank the working people (in Information Technology) for their valuable time for giving me requires data. Last but not the least I would like to thank all my family and friends for helping me in so many ways and for just being there when I needed that bit of extra strength to carry on. It is pleasure to acknowledge contributions of all above people. RESEARCH OVERVIEW The whole research was divided into five chapters for the flexibility of reader to make this research meaningful and better understanding of what it explains. All these five chapters are interrelated to make this research appropriate and each chapter has its own importance in this research to make the necessary findings. The first chapter contains brief description about this research, introduction to information technology industry in India and describes attrition meaning. Then this chapter describes purpose of this research, fundamental aim, objectives, research questions to be investigated in this research and the methodology applied to get effective result and necessary findings. The second chapter contains information about literature review of this research, which contains the collection of data from researches done previously related to this topic. This data has been collected from books, journals, articles, web sources and magazines. The third chapter describes well about the research methodology and explains how the researcher used different types of methods to collect primary and secondary data. The data has been collected from employees and managers of different Information Technology organizations in India. Two different questionnaires have been prepared by the researcher to collect the data. One is for employees to collect required data and second one is for managers to investigate the depth of the problems and related solutions of this research. A good response from the employees and managers made this research process easy to get the accurate information required. The fourth chapter is the evolution part of this research. The information collected as means of primary data and secondary data, has been analysed by the researcher to find the required answers for research questions. The analysed data is presented in the form of tables and pie diagrams. Fifth chapter is the finale report of this project, which is useful for IT organizations in India to prevent and reduce the Attrition rate. The recommendations were prepared on the basis of primary data, secondary data and analysis part of this research. The management can use these suggestions as upcoming strategies to curb the attrition in their organizations. RESEARCH INTRODUCTION IT (Information Technology) industry is booming in India. The growth of IT sector in India represents the potential of IT industry to perform at world class levels. Internationally famed companies and locally self-made small-medium sized companies are competing in developing new software with in this huge industry in India. These companies function mainly in two divisions, i.e. Technical (development of software) and Support (HR, Marketing and Finance). Big giants throughout the world are competing to get their software projects done from Indian companies due to some prominent reasons, which include Cheap Labour and Technical excellence. Taking advantage of these incoming clients, Indian companies are not leaving any stone unturned to provide the top quality service. There are many reasons behind this growth of Information Technology market in India. These reasons belong to social, economical, technical and political issues. There are many Universities offering courses on science and mathematics and this kind of education system placed a great emphasis on increased number of science and engineering students. According to the NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Services Companies) of India These Universities are pumping out nearly 0.2 million engineering graduates every year. This population constitutes one of the greatest assets of Indian IT market. Even though there is shortfall of workers due to brain drain with many skilled workers interested to move overseas for better pay and living conditions. Software services sector occupied nearly seventy percent of technical industry of India and its abundant skilled man power is attracting international software companies to back end their operations in India. The advantage of Indias backend operations is geostrategic location which offers 247 services and reduction in turnaround times by leveraging time zone differences. Recently government of India set down new ministry for Information Technology which established comfortable environment for growth in IT developments and attracted many multinational companies by providing greater range of facilities with cheaper costs. According to the NASSCOM survey IT industry attained the revenue of US $17 billion in 2008 there by capturing 12% of world market and expected growth of nearly 16.5% by the end of year 2009. Though the above points are considered as positive attributes in the growth and development of Indian software industry, so also, the negative impact comes into picture in the form of ATTRITION (Loss of Employees/ Work force), which can be explained in terms of large growth of the â€Å"number† of companies attracting talent/ work force (people) which is finally leading to confusion among the work force in deciding the company to work for depending upon the offers made by them. Attrition can be defined as the out flow of employees from an organisation due to various reasons. This research will contribute to identify the reasons behind the dangerous attrition levels in IT industry with in India and will suggest possible solutions to fight this problem. The increasing growth of the industry is leading to equal opportunities for inexperienced and experienced workforce. Since the companies rely on senior and experienced workforce for the projects, there is an unhealthy competition among them to attract the so called senior and experienced workforce which is finally leading to attrition. This research paper clearly lays emphasis on the importance of considering attrition in perspective of individuals and organization because attrition destroys the value of business, causes companies to lose knowledge there by leading to never ending cycle of hiring. The researcher here emphasised on the reasons behind the attrition levels in IT industry in India and the possible solutions to curb it. Questionnaires used in this research serve as channels to understand the specific reasons behind attrition. RESEARCH TITLE: Reasons behind the increase in attrition rate in the Indian IT Industries focussing Employee Turnover and techniques to reduce the Attrition. RESEARCH AIM: The main purpose of this research is to investigate the reason behind the day to day increasing Attrition rate in the Indian subcontinent with respect to the IT industry and there- by develop a report with the factors affecting attrition and possible solutions to overcome these issues. RESEARCH QUESTIONS: The proposed research questions are as follows: What are the reasons behind high attrition rate in the IT sector of Indian sub continent? What factors determine the attrition rate? How can this attrition rate be reduced in IT organizations perspective? OBJECTIVIES: The main objective of this research paper is to determine the relationship between good human resource practices and the reasons behind the employee attrition. To analyse various factors that affect an individuals decision to leave a job for a better opportunity, including individual related, job related and organizational related. To discover various threats and issues those impact the business performance, organisational health and rise in business cost, thus emphasising the importance of attrition in perspective of IT organisations. To evaluate the issues those affect the performance of the industry and minimise the attrition rate and also to analyse the techniques of motivation those will help in reducing the same? ACTIVITIES TO ACHIVE THE OBJECTIVE: Primary data collection will be done by conducting online survey with managers and employees in the organisation; the main reason being to gather accurate information. Moreover, while collecting primary data if the researcher can get to meet any of the old staff who have retired or who have left the organisation due to some reason, researcher would collect information from them to enquire the reason behind their exit from the organisation and their experiences while they were working for the organisation, the difference between their old and new organisation they have joined, whether they are satisfied at the new work place and their expectations from the new company. Conducting a survey with employees would result in measuring the level of satisfaction they have attained in the organisation. To achieve the above task two different questionnaires aimed specifically at managers and employees respectively contribute to the collection of relevant information to understand the problem of attrition in the organisations perspective. The secondary data collection in this research will be done by reading books, journals, web sources, articles, magazines and collecting the old data which is related to human resource management etc related to the research topic. Thus, data analysis of the information gathered would bring in a clear picture of the reasons behind the increasing attrition rate. THE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY: To study the previous works done (on this research topic), making a list of them and analysing them by means of literature review. Discovering the designations where in attrition is more and creating the attrition chart by conducting organization study. Conducting a job satisfaction survey and evaluating the work environment by interviewing IT employees and spreading questionnaires. Conducting a survey with managers to have a look at recruitment process, benefits, training and motivation techniques implemented in the organization to cut down the level of attrition. Considering the reasons for attrition by the analysis of interview data. Suggesting and implementing techniques on how to reduce the attrition. LITERATURE REVIEW Attrition in Indian IT sector is rising drastically due to rapid globalisation and high economic growth. According to the researcher, the attrition is occurring mainly among technically skilled persons due to vast growth of opportunities and booming job market. This booming job market is creating enthusiasm not only among the graduates but also among the most satisfied employees. Due to this act organizations are unable to predict the start of attrition. One of the main reasons put forth for attrition is external inequity of compensation. The affect of attrition is seen in the form financial imbalances in organisations, which can be balanced by reducing attrition through retention of employees which is possible by the diligence of people in managerial positions. ATTRITION IN INDIA Almost all major business sectors in India are facing high attrition rates; these include BPO (Business Process Outsourcing), Telecom sector, Retail sector, Services sector, Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical. Attrition rates in different sectors for 2007 are shown below. Source [online]: http://www.qcin.org/nbqp/qualityindia/Vol-3-No1/retaining.htm As evidence in the figure 1, BPO sector is the worst affiliated by attrition and IT sector is at ninth place with the attrition rate of 27%. This shows attrition in India is an enormous problem with wide range of concerns. As this research is narrowed by only concentrating on IT sector, a brief introduction was given below as a table about top Indian IT organizations. SOURCE [online]: www.economictimes.indiatimes.com/photo/4835043.cms The above table provides overview about working human resources in top IT organizations. Thousands of organizations were equipped with human resources as main source of business. Arup Chowdary, CIO of Everyday Industries explains â€Å"major challenges are in terms of resources. The kind of attrition that we have in the IT industry today is one of the business challenges. It is extremely important that the resources that are given into the project actually continue for a longer period of time, which is not really the case; because the IT industry so volatile. So one is managing resources and number two is training those resources with adequate means to come to the market standards† .This statement gives clear indication of attrition affect on Indian IT industry. According to the CCI (Chambers of Commerce of India) research study in India, attrition rate for 2007 was 27% and for 2008 was 29%, and according to Hewitt Associates survey for 2009-2010 most companies continued to experience attrition rates in double digits despite economic downturn. According to the India Attrition study 2008, which was done between October 2008 and March 2009 by partnership between BT and PeopleSoft, key drivers for employees leaving their jobs are opportunity or career growth, salary, type of work, training or development, family circumstances, current job dissatisfaction, health, work load and working environment. According to this survey highest percentage of people are leaving their jobs for career growth and next for salary. Among the people who leave IT organizations, more number of people is top performers (45%) of whole employees. Figure 3: Leaver type across Indian IT industry . REASONS FOR ATTRITION According to researcher, the major reasons for attrition other than monetary reasons (high salaries) are thought to be: Ø The aspect of exploring new avenues by the employees where they get a bigger opportunity to hone their existing skills. Ø Many employees, who work in IT sector, leave behind their interests and finally when they identify the clichà ©d nature of these jobs they willingly opt out and look for something novel and exciting even if it costs their careers. According to Dr. A. Oliver Bright, causes for attrition vary from one organizational level to another. Considering at senior management level many firms chase the dearth of top talent in business, this situation results in senior managers getting new offers with more compensation than existing job. At medium level, employees seek to move from one zone to another like moving from technical role to managerial role or slower moving sector to faster one. At junior level, hike in salary and demand for employees in the market make employees to move to another job. There is a rapid development in Indian IT business sector, because many organizations from the USA and the UK outsource their work to Indian companies, thus resulting in the rise of opportunities. Hence people want to reach the top of the career at faster pace. It makes the employees to skip from one company to another. Employee as reason for attrition: An employee might get the feeling of â€Å"insecurity† regarding his job if the management neglects his career ladder. There are chances of an employee leaving the organisation if the so called training does not emphasise on his area of work and career growth. The communication gap between higher managerial personnel and the employees could be another possible reason of attrition. Another reason is the delay of intra-organisational promotions, which if offered by a different organisation will lead to the loss of employees (attrition). Employees tend to leave the organisation if they are not engaged in projects, which can be avoided by focussing on their growth. Several reasons for attrition could be due to the employee himself/herself. The employee might not have grasped the job profile at the start of his/her tenure and/or the profile was not explained in detail by the company. Poor work habits of employees from their previous job get carried over to their new jobs which dist urbs their comfort zone. As explained earlier due to insufficient knowledge about the job profile the employee might not be competitive both in his/her organizational skills and interpersonal skills. This leads to improper job handling. A poor job fit, which is explained by the inversely proportional relationship between the new job preferences and the employee attitude/interest. High female staff attrition is great problem these days in IT organizations as many number of female employees quit their jobs to give focus on their families even their salary is with six digits. WIPRO joint CEO Mr Vaswani says male to female ratio is almost same at entry level, but women employees drops to about fifteen to twenty percent at middle management levels and further about five to ten percent at senior management levels, and he continuous that it is a loss when trained and talented employee leaves. Currently Infosys employs 33.4% of women, TCS 30% and Wipro 29%. A women project manager says â€Å"I had to stretch myself and the team till late nights to fit into clients time zone. Women also quit at mid level because their priorities change. They want to show their excellence as a homemaker, which was the case with me†.To reduce this attrition organizations increased maternity leave, offering work from home policies for women, relocating them if their husbands get t ransferred, trying to be gender neutral and making easier to women for working. {Source [online]: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/News-By-Industry/Jobs/TCS-Wipro-Infosys-go-all-out-to-check-high-female-staff-attrition/articleshow/5324809.cms?curpg=2.Accessed on 13/12/2009} Ashok Arora, executive director for HR, Ashoka Leylands says â€Å"high end talent is always high on aspiration; their worry is not one of survival, but how fast they climb up the corporate ladder. Management people tend to lose them every time if they do not reasonably address their concerns. The reasons behind people changing their jobs: Employees expect more salary and more compensation than within their present position. Overseas opportunities, which may give hike in salary and position. A higher position in Indian culture means status and respect. If employees want to change their locations for personal and family reasons. Especially in India family plays a crucial role where a family decision can change the career path of a young professional and make employee to change his/her job (Dr. Elena Groznaya). People are interested in new technologies rather than working with same technology. To balance the social life and flexibility with working hours. Taking into account the company image and future growth of the organization. Employees will be self motivated to leave the company because of job insecurity, no freedom of decision making, relationship with peers, less compensation packages and lack of motivation. Management as cause of reason: It is very important for the management to meet the expectation of employees, if there is any such kind of problem or communication gap between management and employees then the persons would like to leave the organization. Another reason for attrition in organization is if management fails at satisfying employee needs and management does not follow correct policies or does not have appropriate tools to manage the employee related tasks then this situation leads to further dissatisfaction. Azim Premji (CEO, WIPRO Technologies) stated that â€Å"when talented people leave organizations despite of high salaries, they dont leave the organizations but they leave their managers†. When there is continuous process of good employees resigning their jobs then management should have a look at their immediate supervisor. Advantage of Indian IT industry is the availability of large number of human resources in market, when managers show their concern as â€Å"plenty of fish in the pond† towards their employees by not considering their personal values then there is chance of increase rate of attrition rate. When first time employees face difficulties with their managers they look forward to solve that situation, second time they will think about leaving, but third time they will look for external opportunity. Job profile as a cause of reason: Job profile may cause the increase in attrition by considering the following factors. While dealing with the outsourced projects the employees have to work according to the time zone of client place, employees have to work by travelling most of the time to reach their targets, and if the employee is not satisfied with his job profile all these factors push the employees to look for a different alternative. REFLECTING FACTORS OF ATTRITION According to the researcher high attrition level may cause the employees to feel insecure and leave the organization, while lower rate of attrition will act as a retention policy. High attrition level indicates the poor ability of organization to hold its people. â€Å"Attrition is unfortunately viewed as a management flaw when in fact it could well be a recruitment error†. (MONISHA ADVANI, CEO, EMMAY HR)[source:http://www.expresscomputeronline.com/20050822/technologylife01.shtml)] Attrition level not only reflects the flaws in recruitment strategies but also training methods, retention strategies, work culture and company value in the market. CALUCULATING EMPLOYEE ATTRIRION It is very much important to concentrate on the rate of attrition in an organization which can be achieved by analysis and debate for. According to Sudiptha dev calculation of employee attrition may vary from one organization to another. Anil Naronha one of the director and HR of Novell software limited states that the standard method used to calculate the attrition of employees is dividing the number of employees who left during the year by the average number employed for that year. According to the researcher it is very important to consider the root problem while calculating the attrition level of employees by going back to the hiring stage. Fresher (newly recruited) attrition level will be calculated by considering the number of these employees left and critical level attrition will be calculated when key persons leave. Some organizations may not consider the attrition of beginners when they leave the organization for higher studies and moreover, termination of employees (whose performance is not met to the standards) is also not considered as attrition. But these exemptions depend on the policies/ methods followed by the organizations to calculate the levels of attrition. COST OF ATTRITION There are both visible and invisible costs associated with attrition. The invisible costs are low production rate which in turn creates loss in future sales, loss of customers and degradation of brand name in the market, loss of clients and contacts that person had with industry. Visible costs are the costs due to workforce leaving the organization, recruitment costs, training costs, loss of productivity costs and new hire costs etc. Costs due to loss of workforce includes the cost of the temporary recruitment to fill in while the position is vacant, compensation and benefits, administrative costs like clearing the benefits and stopping the payroll and cost of lost knowledge. Every person who leaves an organization becomes its ambassador, for better or for worse. When employees leave the organization continuously, it is important to consider the recruitment process which in turn will become a never ending cycle. Recruitment costs include cost of advertisement, employee referral costs and agency cost. Recruitment is a long-term process which consists of many stages and tasks to perform. These steps include understanding the requirements of position, advertising the vacancies, search for new talent, checking the background of applicants, preparing and conducting interviews and notify results to candidates whether they are successful or not. Training is the next aspect to consider which involves high costs. It is an important task to hire a person who conducts the orientation which includes the cost of orientation materials. Cost for training material includes cost of hardware, software and printing manuals. By considering the above factors one can lead to a conclusion that there are massive costs associated with attrition. TECHNIQUES TO REDUCE THE ATTRIRION The attrition levels can be reducedby the active input from HR people of the concerned organizations. Since they are the first line of contact for employees, they need to emphasise on the necessity to communicate with employees very often, motivating them and identifying any troubles and disturbances which if not done will gradually encourage the employee to leave the organisation. When the management neglects career ladder of an employee, that person might get the feeling of future insecurity. This can be reduced by conducting well prepared training sessions to improve employee skills and attitude. Some of the solutions that have been implemented successfully by the organisations in recent years to reduce attrition include, work-life balance, recognition and corporate brand building, healthy work environment, continuous employee learning (Subramaniam 2005). It is very important to follow the effective recruitment strategies rather than following traditional recruitment methods. This can help the company to improve the response between organization goals and individual expectations to reduce the attrition level. The type of Indian IT market can be called as people driven business, because it is a huge industry which is mainly depend on Human resources. So it is big challenge for human resource department to handle high stream of employees coming in and going out of the organizations.Padmaja Alaganandan, Principal Consultant, Mercer HR Consulting, India says â€Å"recruitment should be strategic to scale back organizations business targets because of their inability to recruit quality talent at the pace and scale called for. In such organizations with large scale of hiring, recruitment needs to be seen as a separate function with strong linkage to the business†. Compensation and rewards play vital role in IT organisations to motivate and satisfy the employees. When a company makes high profits, it should make an effort to recognise the contribution of employees in this success by releasing bonuses which will lead to a positive employee response in future endeavours. Dr Elena Groznaya(freelance researcher and consultant in the field of intercultural relations and diversity management) suggested some motivation methods, they are extrusive motivation by money (pay rises, bonus and promotion), by showing long-term perspective towards employee including the family and enabling personal development. In order to motivate staff, experts claim that it is important to recognise set of values and needs, those vary in each particular culture. According to the classical theory of Maslow the hierarchy of needs includes : Psychological, survival needs Safety and security needs Social needs of acceptance Esteem and acknowledgment needs Self-actualization and self-development needs Major impacts on the employee behaviour are organizational culture and working environment. Providing good work environment and acknowledging the employee as a customer is an effective technique to reduce the attrition level. A good employer can be differentiated from other employers by thoroughly looking at the priorities of them, while considering the goals and needs of employees. Maintaining work-life balance among the employees is the main technique to reduce the attrition level. The nature of IT industry is to upgrade its operations frequently to achieve the business requirements and for this there is a need of dynamic change in deploying and using the upgraded technologies. To achieve the above requirements the management needs to take measures to help employees to update their knowledge through training programs from time to time. It is important to identify top performers to reward and retain them, but keeping them secure and motivated becomes a key challenge. One of the best ways is to engage them by implementing strong career program for them. One of the top companies of India, National Information Technology, has implemented structured staff communication program which includes periodic sessions with business heads, skip level meeting, star performing bonus for high level performers and national or business level recognition programme. On other hand identify non performers to put on performance related exercises. To keep employees engaged there is need for staff involvement programmes like pre festive events, in-house sports activities and participation in outside activities. According to the WIPRO leaders quality survey, perfect leadership is one of the techniques to reduce attrition levels. Marcia Robinson and Ravi Kalakota (2005) suggested seven strategies for recruiting and retaining employees. Spend time developing and Bench marking incentives which include free transportation, education allowances, health related allowances, bonuses and performance based appraisals. The main problem in Indian IT industry is that most of the newly recruited students/employees are leaving the organization to pursue masters/ higher studies. This situation can be overcome by the organisations, through the provision of subsidies for the higher education of beginner employees, to improve their knowledge in their area of expertise. Change the locations of work by sending the projects to places where labour and real est Growth of the IT Sector in India Growth of the IT Sector in India ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my supervisor JONATHAN C WESTLAKE for his insurmountable guidance and tremendous encouragement throughout this research. Without him I couldnt get effective results in this research. His precious inputs and valuable suggestions helped me throughout my research. I would like to thank my award leader PHILLMICKLEBURGH for his wonderful support and advice in technical and personal matters throughout my course and project work. I would like to thank the working people (in Information Technology) for their valuable time for giving me requires data. Last but not the least I would like to thank all my family and friends for helping me in so many ways and for just being there when I needed that bit of extra strength to carry on. It is pleasure to acknowledge contributions of all above people. RESEARCH OVERVIEW The whole research was divided into five chapters for the flexibility of reader to make this research meaningful and better understanding of what it explains. All these five chapters are interrelated to make this research appropriate and each chapter has its own importance in this research to make the necessary findings. The first chapter contains brief description about this research, introduction to information technology industry in India and describes attrition meaning. Then this chapter describes purpose of this research, fundamental aim, objectives, research questions to be investigated in this research and the methodology applied to get effective result and necessary findings. The second chapter contains information about literature review of this research, which contains the collection of data from researches done previously related to this topic. This data has been collected from books, journals, articles, web sources and magazines. The third chapter describes well about the research methodology and explains how the researcher used different types of methods to collect primary and secondary data. The data has been collected from employees and managers of different Information Technology organizations in India. Two different questionnaires have been prepared by the researcher to collect the data. One is for employees to collect required data and second one is for managers to investigate the depth of the problems and related solutions of this research. A good response from the employees and managers made this research process easy to get the accurate information required. The fourth chapter is the evolution part of this research. The information collected as means of primary data and secondary data, has been analysed by the researcher to find the required answers for research questions. The analysed data is presented in the form of tables and pie diagrams. Fifth chapter is the finale report of this project, which is useful for IT organizations in India to prevent and reduce the Attrition rate. The recommendations were prepared on the basis of primary data, secondary data and analysis part of this research. The management can use these suggestions as upcoming strategies to curb the attrition in their organizations. RESEARCH INTRODUCTION IT (Information Technology) industry is booming in India. The growth of IT sector in India represents the potential of IT industry to perform at world class levels. Internationally famed companies and locally self-made small-medium sized companies are competing in developing new software with in this huge industry in India. These companies function mainly in two divisions, i.e. Technical (development of software) and Support (HR, Marketing and Finance). Big giants throughout the world are competing to get their software projects done from Indian companies due to some prominent reasons, which include Cheap Labour and Technical excellence. Taking advantage of these incoming clients, Indian companies are not leaving any stone unturned to provide the top quality service. There are many reasons behind this growth of Information Technology market in India. These reasons belong to social, economical, technical and political issues. There are many Universities offering courses on science and mathematics and this kind of education system placed a great emphasis on increased number of science and engineering students. According to the NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Services Companies) of India These Universities are pumping out nearly 0.2 million engineering graduates every year. This population constitutes one of the greatest assets of Indian IT market. Even though there is shortfall of workers due to brain drain with many skilled workers interested to move overseas for better pay and living conditions. Software services sector occupied nearly seventy percent of technical industry of India and its abundant skilled man power is attracting international software companies to back end their operations in India. The advantage of Indias backend operations is geostrategic location which offers 247 services and reduction in turnaround times by leveraging time zone differences. Recently government of India set down new ministry for Information Technology which established comfortable environment for growth in IT developments and attracted many multinational companies by providing greater range of facilities with cheaper costs. According to the NASSCOM survey IT industry attained the revenue of US $17 billion in 2008 there by capturing 12% of world market and expected growth of nearly 16.5% by the end of year 2009. Though the above points are considered as positive attributes in the growth and development of Indian software industry, so also, the negative impact comes into picture in the form of ATTRITION (Loss of Employees/ Work force), which can be explained in terms of large growth of the â€Å"number† of companies attracting talent/ work force (people) which is finally leading to confusion among the work force in deciding the company to work for depending upon the offers made by them. Attrition can be defined as the out flow of employees from an organisation due to various reasons. This research will contribute to identify the reasons behind the dangerous attrition levels in IT industry with in India and will suggest possible solutions to fight this problem. The increasing growth of the industry is leading to equal opportunities for inexperienced and experienced workforce. Since the companies rely on senior and experienced workforce for the projects, there is an unhealthy competition among them to attract the so called senior and experienced workforce which is finally leading to attrition. This research paper clearly lays emphasis on the importance of considering attrition in perspective of individuals and organization because attrition destroys the value of business, causes companies to lose knowledge there by leading to never ending cycle of hiring. The researcher here emphasised on the reasons behind the attrition levels in IT industry in India and the possible solutions to curb it. Questionnaires used in this research serve as channels to understand the specific reasons behind attrition. RESEARCH TITLE: Reasons behind the increase in attrition rate in the Indian IT Industries focussing Employee Turnover and techniques to reduce the Attrition. RESEARCH AIM: The main purpose of this research is to investigate the reason behind the day to day increasing Attrition rate in the Indian subcontinent with respect to the IT industry and there- by develop a report with the factors affecting attrition and possible solutions to overcome these issues. RESEARCH QUESTIONS: The proposed research questions are as follows: What are the reasons behind high attrition rate in the IT sector of Indian sub continent? What factors determine the attrition rate? How can this attrition rate be reduced in IT organizations perspective? OBJECTIVIES: The main objective of this research paper is to determine the relationship between good human resource practices and the reasons behind the employee attrition. To analyse various factors that affect an individuals decision to leave a job for a better opportunity, including individual related, job related and organizational related. To discover various threats and issues those impact the business performance, organisational health and rise in business cost, thus emphasising the importance of attrition in perspective of IT organisations. To evaluate the issues those affect the performance of the industry and minimise the attrition rate and also to analyse the techniques of motivation those will help in reducing the same? ACTIVITIES TO ACHIVE THE OBJECTIVE: Primary data collection will be done by conducting online survey with managers and employees in the organisation; the main reason being to gather accurate information. Moreover, while collecting primary data if the researcher can get to meet any of the old staff who have retired or who have left the organisation due to some reason, researcher would collect information from them to enquire the reason behind their exit from the organisation and their experiences while they were working for the organisation, the difference between their old and new organisation they have joined, whether they are satisfied at the new work place and their expectations from the new company. Conducting a survey with employees would result in measuring the level of satisfaction they have attained in the organisation. To achieve the above task two different questionnaires aimed specifically at managers and employees respectively contribute to the collection of relevant information to understand the problem of attrition in the organisations perspective. The secondary data collection in this research will be done by reading books, journals, web sources, articles, magazines and collecting the old data which is related to human resource management etc related to the research topic. Thus, data analysis of the information gathered would bring in a clear picture of the reasons behind the increasing attrition rate. THE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY: To study the previous works done (on this research topic), making a list of them and analysing them by means of literature review. Discovering the designations where in attrition is more and creating the attrition chart by conducting organization study. Conducting a job satisfaction survey and evaluating the work environment by interviewing IT employees and spreading questionnaires. Conducting a survey with managers to have a look at recruitment process, benefits, training and motivation techniques implemented in the organization to cut down the level of attrition. Considering the reasons for attrition by the analysis of interview data. Suggesting and implementing techniques on how to reduce the attrition. LITERATURE REVIEW Attrition in Indian IT sector is rising drastically due to rapid globalisation and high economic growth. According to the researcher, the attrition is occurring mainly among technically skilled persons due to vast growth of opportunities and booming job market. This booming job market is creating enthusiasm not only among the graduates but also among the most satisfied employees. Due to this act organizations are unable to predict the start of attrition. One of the main reasons put forth for attrition is external inequity of compensation. The affect of attrition is seen in the form financial imbalances in organisations, which can be balanced by reducing attrition through retention of employees which is possible by the diligence of people in managerial positions. ATTRITION IN INDIA Almost all major business sectors in India are facing high attrition rates; these include BPO (Business Process Outsourcing), Telecom sector, Retail sector, Services sector, Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical. Attrition rates in different sectors for 2007 are shown below. Source [online]: http://www.qcin.org/nbqp/qualityindia/Vol-3-No1/retaining.htm As evidence in the figure 1, BPO sector is the worst affiliated by attrition and IT sector is at ninth place with the attrition rate of 27%. This shows attrition in India is an enormous problem with wide range of concerns. As this research is narrowed by only concentrating on IT sector, a brief introduction was given below as a table about top Indian IT organizations. SOURCE [online]: www.economictimes.indiatimes.com/photo/4835043.cms The above table provides overview about working human resources in top IT organizations. Thousands of organizations were equipped with human resources as main source of business. Arup Chowdary, CIO of Everyday Industries explains â€Å"major challenges are in terms of resources. The kind of attrition that we have in the IT industry today is one of the business challenges. It is extremely important that the resources that are given into the project actually continue for a longer period of time, which is not really the case; because the IT industry so volatile. So one is managing resources and number two is training those resources with adequate means to come to the market standards† .This statement gives clear indication of attrition affect on Indian IT industry. According to the CCI (Chambers of Commerce of India) research study in India, attrition rate for 2007 was 27% and for 2008 was 29%, and according to Hewitt Associates survey for 2009-2010 most companies continued to experience attrition rates in double digits despite economic downturn. According to the India Attrition study 2008, which was done between October 2008 and March 2009 by partnership between BT and PeopleSoft, key drivers for employees leaving their jobs are opportunity or career growth, salary, type of work, training or development, family circumstances, current job dissatisfaction, health, work load and working environment. According to this survey highest percentage of people are leaving their jobs for career growth and next for salary. Among the people who leave IT organizations, more number of people is top performers (45%) of whole employees. Figure 3: Leaver type across Indian IT industry . REASONS FOR ATTRITION According to researcher, the major reasons for attrition other than monetary reasons (high salaries) are thought to be: Ø The aspect of exploring new avenues by the employees where they get a bigger opportunity to hone their existing skills. Ø Many employees, who work in IT sector, leave behind their interests and finally when they identify the clichà ©d nature of these jobs they willingly opt out and look for something novel and exciting even if it costs their careers. According to Dr. A. Oliver Bright, causes for attrition vary from one organizational level to another. Considering at senior management level many firms chase the dearth of top talent in business, this situation results in senior managers getting new offers with more compensation than existing job. At medium level, employees seek to move from one zone to another like moving from technical role to managerial role or slower moving sector to faster one. At junior level, hike in salary and demand for employees in the market make employees to move to another job. There is a rapid development in Indian IT business sector, because many organizations from the USA and the UK outsource their work to Indian companies, thus resulting in the rise of opportunities. Hence people want to reach the top of the career at faster pace. It makes the employees to skip from one company to another. Employee as reason for attrition: An employee might get the feeling of â€Å"insecurity† regarding his job if the management neglects his career ladder. There are chances of an employee leaving the organisation if the so called training does not emphasise on his area of work and career growth. The communication gap between higher managerial personnel and the employees could be another possible reason of attrition. Another reason is the delay of intra-organisational promotions, which if offered by a different organisation will lead to the loss of employees (attrition). Employees tend to leave the organisation if they are not engaged in projects, which can be avoided by focussing on their growth. Several reasons for attrition could be due to the employee himself/herself. The employee might not have grasped the job profile at the start of his/her tenure and/or the profile was not explained in detail by the company. Poor work habits of employees from their previous job get carried over to their new jobs which dist urbs their comfort zone. As explained earlier due to insufficient knowledge about the job profile the employee might not be competitive both in his/her organizational skills and interpersonal skills. This leads to improper job handling. A poor job fit, which is explained by the inversely proportional relationship between the new job preferences and the employee attitude/interest. High female staff attrition is great problem these days in IT organizations as many number of female employees quit their jobs to give focus on their families even their salary is with six digits. WIPRO joint CEO Mr Vaswani says male to female ratio is almost same at entry level, but women employees drops to about fifteen to twenty percent at middle management levels and further about five to ten percent at senior management levels, and he continuous that it is a loss when trained and talented employee leaves. Currently Infosys employs 33.4% of women, TCS 30% and Wipro 29%. A women project manager says â€Å"I had to stretch myself and the team till late nights to fit into clients time zone. Women also quit at mid level because their priorities change. They want to show their excellence as a homemaker, which was the case with me†.To reduce this attrition organizations increased maternity leave, offering work from home policies for women, relocating them if their husbands get t ransferred, trying to be gender neutral and making easier to women for working. {Source [online]: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/News-By-Industry/Jobs/TCS-Wipro-Infosys-go-all-out-to-check-high-female-staff-attrition/articleshow/5324809.cms?curpg=2.Accessed on 13/12/2009} Ashok Arora, executive director for HR, Ashoka Leylands says â€Å"high end talent is always high on aspiration; their worry is not one of survival, but how fast they climb up the corporate ladder. Management people tend to lose them every time if they do not reasonably address their concerns. The reasons behind people changing their jobs: Employees expect more salary and more compensation than within their present position. Overseas opportunities, which may give hike in salary and position. A higher position in Indian culture means status and respect. If employees want to change their locations for personal and family reasons. Especially in India family plays a crucial role where a family decision can change the career path of a young professional and make employee to change his/her job (Dr. Elena Groznaya). People are interested in new technologies rather than working with same technology. To balance the social life and flexibility with working hours. Taking into account the company image and future growth of the organization. Employees will be self motivated to leave the company because of job insecurity, no freedom of decision making, relationship with peers, less compensation packages and lack of motivation. Management as cause of reason: It is very important for the management to meet the expectation of employees, if there is any such kind of problem or communication gap between management and employees then the persons would like to leave the organization. Another reason for attrition in organization is if management fails at satisfying employee needs and management does not follow correct policies or does not have appropriate tools to manage the employee related tasks then this situation leads to further dissatisfaction. Azim Premji (CEO, WIPRO Technologies) stated that â€Å"when talented people leave organizations despite of high salaries, they dont leave the organizations but they leave their managers†. When there is continuous process of good employees resigning their jobs then management should have a look at their immediate supervisor. Advantage of Indian IT industry is the availability of large number of human resources in market, when managers show their concern as â€Å"plenty of fish in the pond† towards their employees by not considering their personal values then there is chance of increase rate of attrition rate. When first time employees face difficulties with their managers they look forward to solve that situation, second time they will think about leaving, but third time they will look for external opportunity. Job profile as a cause of reason: Job profile may cause the increase in attrition by considering the following factors. While dealing with the outsourced projects the employees have to work according to the time zone of client place, employees have to work by travelling most of the time to reach their targets, and if the employee is not satisfied with his job profile all these factors push the employees to look for a different alternative. REFLECTING FACTORS OF ATTRITION According to the researcher high attrition level may cause the employees to feel insecure and leave the organization, while lower rate of attrition will act as a retention policy. High attrition level indicates the poor ability of organization to hold its people. â€Å"Attrition is unfortunately viewed as a management flaw when in fact it could well be a recruitment error†. (MONISHA ADVANI, CEO, EMMAY HR)[source:http://www.expresscomputeronline.com/20050822/technologylife01.shtml)] Attrition level not only reflects the flaws in recruitment strategies but also training methods, retention strategies, work culture and company value in the market. CALUCULATING EMPLOYEE ATTRIRION It is very much important to concentrate on the rate of attrition in an organization which can be achieved by analysis and debate for. According to Sudiptha dev calculation of employee attrition may vary from one organization to another. Anil Naronha one of the director and HR of Novell software limited states that the standard method used to calculate the attrition of employees is dividing the number of employees who left during the year by the average number employed for that year. According to the researcher it is very important to consider the root problem while calculating the attrition level of employees by going back to the hiring stage. Fresher (newly recruited) attrition level will be calculated by considering the number of these employees left and critical level attrition will be calculated when key persons leave. Some organizations may not consider the attrition of beginners when they leave the organization for higher studies and moreover, termination of employees (whose performance is not met to the standards) is also not considered as attrition. But these exemptions depend on the policies/ methods followed by the organizations to calculate the levels of attrition. COST OF ATTRITION There are both visible and invisible costs associated with attrition. The invisible costs are low production rate which in turn creates loss in future sales, loss of customers and degradation of brand name in the market, loss of clients and contacts that person had with industry. Visible costs are the costs due to workforce leaving the organization, recruitment costs, training costs, loss of productivity costs and new hire costs etc. Costs due to loss of workforce includes the cost of the temporary recruitment to fill in while the position is vacant, compensation and benefits, administrative costs like clearing the benefits and stopping the payroll and cost of lost knowledge. Every person who leaves an organization becomes its ambassador, for better or for worse. When employees leave the organization continuously, it is important to consider the recruitment process which in turn will become a never ending cycle. Recruitment costs include cost of advertisement, employee referral costs and agency cost. Recruitment is a long-term process which consists of many stages and tasks to perform. These steps include understanding the requirements of position, advertising the vacancies, search for new talent, checking the background of applicants, preparing and conducting interviews and notify results to candidates whether they are successful or not. Training is the next aspect to consider which involves high costs. It is an important task to hire a person who conducts the orientation which includes the cost of orientation materials. Cost for training material includes cost of hardware, software and printing manuals. By considering the above factors one can lead to a conclusion that there are massive costs associated with attrition. TECHNIQUES TO REDUCE THE ATTRIRION The attrition levels can be reducedby the active input from HR people of the concerned organizations. Since they are the first line of contact for employees, they need to emphasise on the necessity to communicate with employees very often, motivating them and identifying any troubles and disturbances which if not done will gradually encourage the employee to leave the organisation. When the management neglects career ladder of an employee, that person might get the feeling of future insecurity. This can be reduced by conducting well prepared training sessions to improve employee skills and attitude. Some of the solutions that have been implemented successfully by the organisations in recent years to reduce attrition include, work-life balance, recognition and corporate brand building, healthy work environment, continuous employee learning (Subramaniam 2005). It is very important to follow the effective recruitment strategies rather than following traditional recruitment methods. This can help the company to improve the response between organization goals and individual expectations to reduce the attrition level. The type of Indian IT market can be called as people driven business, because it is a huge industry which is mainly depend on Human resources. So it is big challenge for human resource department to handle high stream of employees coming in and going out of the organizations.Padmaja Alaganandan, Principal Consultant, Mercer HR Consulting, India says â€Å"recruitment should be strategic to scale back organizations business targets because of their inability to recruit quality talent at the pace and scale called for. In such organizations with large scale of hiring, recruitment needs to be seen as a separate function with strong linkage to the business†. Compensation and rewards play vital role in IT organisations to motivate and satisfy the employees. When a company makes high profits, it should make an effort to recognise the contribution of employees in this success by releasing bonuses which will lead to a positive employee response in future endeavours. Dr Elena Groznaya(freelance researcher and consultant in the field of intercultural relations and diversity management) suggested some motivation methods, they are extrusive motivation by money (pay rises, bonus and promotion), by showing long-term perspective towards employee including the family and enabling personal development. In order to motivate staff, experts claim that it is important to recognise set of values and needs, those vary in each particular culture. According to the classical theory of Maslow the hierarchy of needs includes : Psychological, survival needs Safety and security needs Social needs of acceptance Esteem and acknowledgment needs Self-actualization and self-development needs Major impacts on the employee behaviour are organizational culture and working environment. Providing good work environment and acknowledging the employee as a customer is an effective technique to reduce the attrition level. A good employer can be differentiated from other employers by thoroughly looking at the priorities of them, while considering the goals and needs of employees. Maintaining work-life balance among the employees is the main technique to reduce the attrition level. The nature of IT industry is to upgrade its operations frequently to achieve the business requirements and for this there is a need of dynamic change in deploying and using the upgraded technologies. To achieve the above requirements the management needs to take measures to help employees to update their knowledge through training programs from time to time. It is important to identify top performers to reward and retain them, but keeping them secure and motivated becomes a key challenge. One of the best ways is to engage them by implementing strong career program for them. One of the top companies of India, National Information Technology, has implemented structured staff communication program which includes periodic sessions with business heads, skip level meeting, star performing bonus for high level performers and national or business level recognition programme. On other hand identify non performers to put on performance related exercises. To keep employees engaged there is need for staff involvement programmes like pre festive events, in-house sports activities and participation in outside activities. According to the WIPRO leaders quality survey, perfect leadership is one of the techniques to reduce attrition levels. Marcia Robinson and Ravi Kalakota (2005) suggested seven strategies for recruiting and retaining employees. Spend time developing and Bench marking incentives which include free transportation, education allowances, health related allowances, bonuses and performance based appraisals. The main problem in Indian IT industry is that most of the newly recruited students/employees are leaving the organization to pursue masters/ higher studies. This situation can be overcome by the organisations, through the provision of subsidies for the higher education of beginner employees, to improve their knowledge in their area of expertise. Change the locations of work by sending the projects to places where labour and real est

Prioritizing English over the Loss of Your Language

Prioritizing the English language over the possible erosion of your native language Nearly 72% of the information available on the internet is in English. How did it all start? The English language spread throughout the world because England in the late 16th century formed colonies all around the world. And until now the English language is growing and becoming more and more popular worldwide, English has official or special status in at least seventy five countries with a total population of over two billion (The Cambridge Encyclopedia).More and more people see learning English even if they might lose their native language as positive. Personally, I believe that English should be prioritized over the possibility of erosion of a native language for a number of reasons. English breaks the language barriers between different countries especially through the internet and there are more job opportunities if one is able to speak and write English fluently. In this essay I’m going t o focus mainly on these two points. [good]The internet is a system of interconnected computer networks, to serve billions of people worldwide. The internet is a place where everyone comes on from different countries to communicate with one another and to share all sort of things like what’s really happening in their community/ country. It’s a place where the people of the world come together as one. English breaks the language barrier also, by allowing people from around the world to get to know each other, work together and communicate whether it’s face-to-face, by phone, via email and most importantly via the internet. What percent of the internet is really in English? ’ this is a question asked by many. And the last time anyone made a serious attempt to answer this, was a study conducted by Excite AtHome in 1999, which looked at 600 million webpages and concluded that 72% were in English (Zukerman, 2009). With so much information mainly in English free ly available on the internet, this motivated people from different countries to learn the language so they can seize the change of getting valuable information for almost free of charge.There is only one language for airlines taking off and landing in 157 countries around the world and that’s English. English is the universal language of air traffic control. Therefore, a pilot from an Arab country for example, where English is not spoken that often, will have a better chance of being hired by any airline around the world if they can speak proper English. English is necessary also for official business that’s why companies hire their employees based on their y capability of speaking and writing English.Job opportunities worldwide in let’s say big international companies such as Ernst & Young or other large companies; look for such employees with top notch English. Meanwhile, if more people speak English in a country, potential business opportunities sky rocket be cause it’s the only way business partner, franchisers and investors can communicate, discuss, negotiate and make a deal with one another.This enhances the profit of a country and benefits the country as a whole in the long run. To sum it all up, personally, I feel that the advantages out way the disadvantage of prioritizing the English language over the possible erosion of you native language. First off, job opportunities increase when one is capable of speaking and writing English fluently because it’s one of the criteria in most major international companies.Secondly, The English language allows people from different backgrounds and mother tongues to communicate effectively and get to know about each other. References: Zukerman, M. Musing on Africa, International development and hacking the media, 2009. http://www. ethanzuckerman. com/blog/2009/06/01/what-percentage-of-the-internet-is-in-english-in-. chinese/ MacNeil, R. , McCrum, R. , & Cran. W. (Producers). (1986). The Story of English . [Documentary]. http://topdocumentaryfilms. com/story-of-english/