Poaching: The Menace Continues?

The practice is like an ‘illusion'. It is there, but not there. Confusing? Yes. Poaching was the name given by the channel community for this unhealthy practice followed by many vendors. With IT industry being the one industry where lot of switch-over and jobjumping happens, the biggest problem faced by the channel partners today is the unavailability of manpower.

THE METHODOLOGY
There is a routine way followed by the employees. Almost, those who join in the channel partner's office are freshers and will not have much experience. As a pass out from any engineering institution, the basic training is given by the channel partner in each and every aspect and ensures that the employee is mature enough to work with the client. The channel partners do not even mind spending money for their employees for training them with the vendor certified-programmes. After completing around a year of stint with the channel partner, the employee is poached by the vendors or by competitors who find the employee specialized with what they expect. Sometimes, the employee straight away puts in his/her papers and join directly in some vendor companies or will move to some other company, work there for two months and then again switchover to a vendor company. Aforementioned is the practice followed by more than 75% of the employees working in a channel organization. The channel partners could not even question the vendors for poaching as they were not their immediate employer. In some places,this poaching has been used as the weapon to kill the competitors. The poaching is at its peak creating ruckus as one key employee is poached and through that single person other people are also sourced out.

UNAVAILABILITY OF TALENTS
‘Sorry. There are no openings right now.' No job-seeker can find these words in the career section of the channel partner's website. "I have many opportunities in my organization in both sales as well as service. The biggest challenge is that we cannot find the right candidate who meets our expectation", says K Subrahmanya, CEO, Central Data Systems, Bengaluru. He also says that the second challenge comes when it is the matter of retaining the employees. He also says that Bengaluru, being an arena for emerging opportunities, lot of new companies,entering the city, gives room for any people to be a solution provider. "The employees have an attitude ‘what-if-not-you?' and they find other opportunities," he says. However, Subrahmanya says that there is some form of professionalism is there for intimating before quitting. "There can be few examples where the employee is least bothered of his/ her commitment towards the job assigned. But what I can see is employees serve notice period and there is professionalism," Subrahmanya concludes. However, the situation is not the same everywhere. There are cases where the employee quits even without informing the channel partner. Manoj Rathi, CEO, Diamond Infotech, Kolkata, says, "some of them join us straight away from the college. Then they join a distributor and from there, they go to the principal company. We mould them well. However, many of them do not work in the prescribed notice period." He also says that the partners are trying to create a lucrative working atmosphere for the employees and ensure that the best talents are retained. R K Malhothra, CEO, Velosis Systems, says that the situation is normal is Delhi. "We know that whenever an employee finds a better position, they will leave us. We are recruiting our employees through the job portals and there can be some cases where employees suddenly vanish and we are used to the fact that whenever the market is hot, jumping happen."

PARTNER-TO-PARTNER POACHING
However, across the country, partners say that it does happen for partners in the IT hubs. However, those who are not in the IT hub are affected more. Also those partners who are not into an association, create problems by recruiting indifferently. Devesh Aggarwal of Compusoft, Mumbai, explains the situation clearly, "I have presence in almost all the leading cities. But, only for this poaching reason, I shifted my development center from Mumbai to Kolkata." Aggarwal says that even in Kolkata the trend has started. "I can tell you almost 40% of the employees vanish without working on a notice period. For the past six months, the situation has worsened. Of course, no one can stop a person deciding to leave. However, there can be some basic professionalism to be followed," Devesh adds. S Pulla Reddy, CEO, SP Soft, Hyderabad, says, "If you ask me, the situation is that a dealer will train an employee and the distributor who gets to know about one particular employee through the market will pay a lump sum amount and recruit them."

VENDOR POACHING
Sometimes, vendors also poach the employees. Partners tell that after some regular interventions of the association and media, the poaching of employees has gone down in recent days. "Of course, there may be jumping of employees without any notice. But reported cases of a vendor coming and grabbing an employee from our office is very less," says, PG Suresh, CEO, Fast pace systems, Kottayam. He also says that the in some rare cases incidents like that happen. Even Aggarwal feels the same. "Vendors have a clear-cut policy in recruitment and in some cases, even if they recruit, they will go ahead with recruiting them on a contractbasis. But some of the big SIs do not follow any policy," he says. The DQ Week, last year, had raised its voice against the unethical practices in South India. "In the last two or three years, there has been unethical HR practices followed where I lost five good employees. However, this year, I can see a maturity among the employees as they apply for a relieving order," says Senthil Nathan, CEO, Premier, Madurai. He also says that since there has been more awareness among the members, before getting recruited, everyone is ensured they get proper relieving order.

ROLE OF ASSOCIATIONS:
The associations also play a key role in curbing this issue. Devesh says that it is the duty of the associations like ISODA, MAIT to look after this issue seriously and find solutions to sort it out. B Hari, president, COMPASS, says that the association has to facilitate some strategies. "We have faced many cases where one partner poaches the employee of another partner. When some cases are reported, we take strict action against them," he says. He also says that in their association, relieving
order has been made compulsory before going to another employer. He also says that the country being a democratic place, no one has the right to stop anyone's growth. However, SM Prasad, president, BITA, says that this as a never-ending process. "We have raised voice against that, however, the responses was poor among the members. In fact we have even passed a resolution. The partners are worried that going against the vendors may affect their business," he says. He also questions what an association can do against such things. Sushil Kumar, president. JCWA (Ranchi), says that some of the partners in Kolkata involve in such unethical practices. "Since our state is in the bordering place, many big sub-distributors and other big players indulge in such type of activities in our region," he says. "It was at its peak two or three years before and almost every one of us lost huge money because of that. Then we took up the issue in the association and we made a resolution that proper nonobjection certificate has to be given before an employee leaves the previous employer", says KVR Menon, president, Twin city Information Technology Dealers Association, Hyderabad.

CHANNEL PARTNERS BECOMING MORE PROFESSIONAL:
In today's scenario, channel partners are becoming more professional. However, it is not a tough time to be employed in the organization of channel partners. The partners are on par to the corporate companies in taking care of their employees. Many partners claim that they are creating a pleasant learning atmosphere for our employees. They also say that they never have a ‘hire and fire' policy with unachievable targets. Partners are also respecting the employees with regular leave and other allowances. Partners also say that they are also offering them service-based incentives with PF, ESI and other benefits like incentives. In some states, the dealers, through some private insurance agencies, provide insurance schemes for the family members of the channel partners. Some of the senior executives in the partners' firm draws around 50,000 which is equal to that of those who work in MNCs".

SOME FLIP-SIDE STORIES:
There are many partners who have the policies of taking care of the employees as the foremost priority. V Ananthram, MD, Webcom, is a breed apart. "In earlier days, whenever someone joins my team, I ask them to remain with me for a couple of years. And after their successful completion of two years, I myself will take them to my client's place and place him/her with the salary doubled of what I gave." He also says that this also creates business opportunities for him. "This is a two-way process and my old timers who left my organization are with me even after years," says Ananthram, whose mobile number has almost all the ‘x webcom' employees, as he has saved in his mobile. RB Ramesh Kumar, CEO, RB Computers, Kumbakonam has a policy of employing the differently-abled people. The latest addition in his team was a person who is not able to speak and hear what anyone says. "In an accident, he lost his speech and hearing ability. However, with no room for employment, he approached me after completing his diploma with sky-high marks. Now, he has received ‘best service engineer award' from the printers division he is handling," says Ramesh. Ramesh also adds that he is ready to train even more people like him and employ them with his firm.

NOT AGAINST THE DEVELOPMENT OF OUR EMPLOYEES:
Such unethical HR practices wear different masks in different region. One region, it has been completely washed out. Whereas, in other places, it is still there. However, almost all the partners also say that they are not against the growth of their employees. Also, the partners know that an employee who is not interested in the job cannot give fruitful results to the company. Many dealers who are all successful entrepreneurs today were once an employee of some organization. They too started their career at junior-level and they understand the problems of the employees. The moment an employee informs their resignation, no dealer will stop the person. But what the dealers ask is a one-month notice as it takes minimum one month to recruit, train and replace a new person. Everywhere, there is no need for an employee to resign from a job from one dealer and join another dealer because the salary and other benefits are almost equal in all the dealers. Associations also insist the same. In our country, everyone has the right to work or do business. But at the same time, the interest of the employer who employed them, when they did not find a job, should also be considered.