This piece focuses primarily on the most chaotic of Indian industries, viz., software. But I feel that certain generic traits which is afflicting this industry can be applied elsewhere. After all, in the current liberalization context, software is probably the most open amongst all industries, when other industries follow suit, there is no reason for them not to experience similar issues.

Employees, organization & the shifting power balance

The most common joke that goes around at SEEPZ (Santacruz Export Processing Zone, Mumbai) is that if your employee has not returned from lunch after normal time, its time to forget about him once and for all as your next door neighbor would have probably offered him 100 rupees extra per month. Jokes apart, companies are massively battling today to cut attrition rates and no single sop that is offered can be a be all and  end all solution.

One significant reason for the shift in power balance from organization to individuals has been the opening up of the economy in general and the software industry in particular. With the democles sword of "foreign options" of employees looming large, companies have been at the conceding end at the negotiation tables. Viewed against this background, salary increases are at best a temporal retardant as no Indian company can match US salaries in any case.

The question of saleable skills

In fact, no single person in the IT industry today is absolutely sure of how long he is going to be in his/her current organization. Especially in the context of software programming, the accent of the individual employee is very clearly to equip himself with saleable skills which can be traded easily in the market place. Thus many employees tend to view their term with Indian companies as a short term interlude where you spruce up your resumes to aid your search of greener pastures (usually USA, but can be Europe/Gulf countries and now, Singapore and South East Asia)

Forward looking Indian software companies are trying to establish a brand equity through large projects in the already cluttered global marketplace. The major projects route is more preferred since developing and marketing a shrink-wrapped product still entails massive resource constraints for these firms. Against this backdrop, the flip side to the drive toward saleable skills is that a company's project objectives and business plans might go totally tangential with an employee's personal enhancement plan. Coupled with our well known Indian accent on individualism even for team games like project implementation, this aspect is giving sleepless nights to many project/HRD managers.

The age of contracts?

Time was when once you join an August organization (read : top corporate houses like the Tatas or the Birlas), you remain wedded to that organization for life. With a multitude of options knocking at your senses every day, today's corporate citizen ends up being a career nomad. So where does that lead a company that tries to employ people with a long term perspective?

The advent of body shoppers have literally forced organizations to view employees as assets with the only yardstick of performance and productivity being return on human capital. Even today, once can observe companies turning increasingly distant to an individual's personal growth. Companies are far more reluctant to invest in training programmes, give a grace time for freshers to learn or give too many off-days.

In the age of transient organization - employee relationships, the next few years could see organizations retaliating in the only way they can - an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Organizational loyalty towards employees will nosedive and companies will be more comfortable working with part timers, contract employees and other temporary staff retaining just a basic core team to guide the company through.

Beginning with the software industry, this could lead to a situation where upon a floating population of skilled workers would be called up by companies depending on projects to be executed. But where does that leave fresh graduates? Our current education system is not being fully able to cater to the challenging skill set demands of the software industry. Thus students typically end up extending their educational period after completing their graduation to include a certificate course in one of the million newly mushroomed computer education courses.

The Age of Contracts can give a further fillip to this industry as more and more students realize the fact that no company is willing to invest in training them and that their educational investment should necessarily include attaining certain demonstrable skills, either self-learned or through some courses.

Along with the disappearance of initial investment in an employee, other signs of long term relationship will also break down. This could mean an end to pensions, provident funds, leave travel allowances and similar "people-friendly"allowances as companies relentlessly try to play the denominator game regarding costs in view of falling top lines and the numerator game with respect to per employee productivity.

The resultant organization-employee shadow boxing is resulting in new heights in worry and dilemma day by day on the organization’s part. To conclude, let me cite the Chinese goodbye line, "May you live in interesting times". For the Indian corporate watcher, starting with the software industry, followed by other fast paced industries, the coming few years looks certain to guarantee some really interesting piece of action as the skirmish carries on…