8/4/2019 SayanMaiti Case

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Venkat is a senior manager for a top notch software firm, Seer India Private Limited. He has been leading

a very big team which has many projects in its kitty. However for some time Venkat has been facing a

strange predicament. Since the past 5 years the higher management of Seer had advocated a plan for

recruiting from the top colleges of India like the IITs and NITs. The management was in view that

freshers who graduated from those colleges were enthusiastic and diligent than experienced employees

and would prove to be good long term assets. Consequently they also believed that recruiting from

these kinds of colleges will add more quality and brand value to Seer which will help the company in the

long run. While Venkat is in line with the view of the company, he had seen some deviations as well. The

track record of freshers in Seer had not been pleasant for Venkat. For the initial period of 1-3 years ,

freshers generally used to work better even than the incumbent employees. After this period they

generally lost interest and went for higher studies or a company change. Since the last 5 years, Venkats

team had recruited more than 20 people from IITs and NITs. Only 5 of them were still employed with

Seer, showing very high rate of attrition. Since the market is on the upside, the top management of Seer

wants to recruit even more freshers from top colleges in India. Venkat is not very happy with this

decision. However he feels that communicating the attrition problem might show his incompetency in

retaining employees. At the same time he knows the long term repercussions of the companys decision.

What should he do?

QNS: What should Venkat do when management communicates the decision to him?

a. Agree with the managements decision of recruiting more freshers. Try to offer better incentivesand career path to freshers for retaining them.

b. Disagree with the management and inform them the problems associated with retainingemployees. Try to be more diligent in recruiting freshers and recruit people who are looking for

a long term association with the company.

c.

Agree with the management. However, look at the previous track record of students fromcolleges. Recruit more from colleges whose students had a record of staying for a longer period

with Seer. Recruit less or stop recruitment from colleges whose record in staying with Seer was

poor.

Answer: Option (b)

While agreeing with the management was a good short term solution to hide ones incompetences,

such a stand will harm the company in the long run. It is always good to let the top management

informed about the ground realities. Track records might not reveal a consistent story in the long run

and people might not stay in a company just because of short term incentives. Hence, have a more

practical strategy in recruiting freshers from colleges and make sure that the emotional quotient of the

student is judged along with the intelligent quotient.