Anybody who has been through a job interview knows that the whole process is a game. The jobseeker wants the job. So he is interested in putting his best foot forward. This involves figuring out what the interviewer wants to hear and responding accordingly.

The interviewer, on the other hand, knows what the candidate is up to. So he makes it his business to peel off the façade. Normally, he wins because he is the decision maker.

When there is greater pressure, however, the safety screens do not work as well. In recent times, the demand for talent — particularly in the IT sector — has picked up. According to a study by the Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India, “It was estimated that Rs 400 crore was spent by Indian companies for filling 200,000 jobs a year in these sectors (IT, ITeS, retail, and financial services) and 10-12 per cent of the selected candidates had submitted false information in their CVs… In March 2006, some leading IT services companies such as Wipro and IBM India dismissed several employees, when they discovered that the information provided in the CVs was false”.

That’s a growing problem and will need to be tackled. Some of the suggested options are a more elaborate screening process and the setting up of educational institutes by these companies. They will catch prospective employees earlier and make them go through a one-year training programme. Those who qualify will be absorbed.

The more important problem in today’s high-attrition companies is the disconnect between what people say and what they mean. “Even the exit interview becomes a useless exercise,” says the HR manager of an Indian MNC. “The standard answer you hear is that the new job gives more opportunity. The reality could easily be something as trivial as the comments colleagues have been making on hairstyle.”

Ajit Pawar (name changed) says he did not realise it himself. “It was only when I got into my new job that I understood how the cracks about my balding were getting to me. As my friends for 20 years, my colleagues could and did hit below the belt in their jokes concerning my aging. In the new environment, there was no such familiarity.”

A study presented at the World Economic Forum says that while 86 per cent of employees cite work/life balance as the top priority in their career, the reality is that strategic clarity is the strongest driver of employee retention.

Scrap all the self-administered questionnaires, the exit interviews and employee satisfaction league tables. The only way to plug the gaps in your HR retention plans is to see what your employees actually do.

According to the HR manager quoted earlier, one technique is to follow the career paths of people who have left you. In most companies, the HR department’s last contact with an employee is the exit interview.

It may mean a lot of work, but it would be a useful exercise to see where your former employees reach in the future. Would they have been as successful if they had stayed? If you can’t track everyone, do it for the people you decided were high-fliers. Keep in touch. The fringe benefit is that if they think of moving again, they might return to you.

David Sirota, author of The Enthusiastic Employee, says that all employees want to be treated fairly and respectfully. They need a sense of achievement from work. And they need camaraderie. He is right. But he is wrong too. The key thing an employee wants is to be treated as an individual, not a number on a spreadsheet.

FORKED TONGUE

What people say they want from their jobs

Work/life balance
Job security
Financial rewards
Career satisfaction
Degree of influence over their own work

What actually keeps them

Career advancement
Financial rewards based on company performance
Innovation and risk.

Source: Survey by David Finegold of the University of Southern California on high-tech companies