Monday, February 14, 2011

Ease of doing business in India!


Just read that in the latest economic freedom index report, India ranks among the last in the world, behind even Pakistan and  Afganistan!  And I am not surprised. It took us more than 40 days to get a company registered and I am told by my chartered accountant friends that it’s almost impossible to exit a company, even if you have never done a single transaction in its name.  

I shudder to think that there are countries that are worse than India in ease of doing business.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Hiring employees in a startup during these crazy times


Just read in papers that Bangalore technology companies including my ex-employer, Infosys, are facing employee attrition levels of 15-18%. But don’t believe the newspapers.  My friends tell me that in many large companies, the actual attrition is touching almost 25-30% per year. 

And less than 30% of those who are made a job offer, actually take up that offer. You can call it unprofessional behavior or sign of an overheated job market, but this is what we are facing at present.  And even high-paying product companies are not doing any better.

That brings me to our predicament. If hiring and retention for Infosys and Microsoft is so difficult, for a startup company, that too a self-funded one, it’s well nigh impossible to attract good employees from the market. In India, except for a very small minority of enlightened self-confident young people, most are looking for a ‘branded’ organization that can give them job security, a zero point five percent discount on home loan and a nod from prospective father-in-law, even if it means working in an equivalent of a coal pit, ask anyone in code-maintenance or graveyard (no pun intended as this is the official name for night shift). 
So how do we hire employees?  

Well, we don’t!  We, at SkillSign, only look for partners in business.

More on this later!!!!