Impact Of Information Technology On Employee Retention In Today’s Competitive Business Environment

In today’s business environment the explosion of Information technology has completely Transformed the structure of the organizations. But to retain the valuable employees is one of the biggest problems now-a-days. This paper focuses on the aspects of Information Technology and employee retention strategies and polices in assisting managers for achieving its objectives towards managing the employee retention by utilizing survey data drawn from various government and private departments, and to remain competitive in this area.

1. Introduction: In today’s business environment the advancement of technology has increased the competition between the organizations. Their overall operations like organizational communication and decision taking strategies depend on the various tools of Information Technology like Internet, E-mails, Database technologies, Teleconferencing and many more. The success of an organization involves the active participation of talented employees. In order for an organization to be an excellent business performer, employees need to be physically and mentally satisfied. Ranjitham D (2007), identified high attrition rate is the biggest challenge faced by IT section. In this technologically changing era retention is a big problem; because once the employees are trained in one technology for a company they easily find better prospects in another company on the same technology. That is switching over is a common problem now-a-days. Thus retaining means preventing the talented and valuable employees from leaving their jobs.  Advancement of Information Technology plays a big role in retaining them. Managers use excess of Information Technology through Internets, Intranets and emails for online communication with the employees. 

This paper describes and analyses the impact of Information Technology; its reasons and factors for retaining the employees. The survey questionnaires were drawn from various Private and Government Departments to examine the impact of IT on retention strategies and policies for job-rotation, cross-training, work-exhaustion, knowledge etc. The statistics thus obtained can be utilized by the managers for successful retention of employees in the organizations.

Research Methodology: The methodology combines description with exploration and analysis. We adopted a structured questionnaire test which allows the respondent to give their thoughts on some of the questions on the dependency of organization on Information Technology and its impact on retaining the valuable and talented employees.

 
The factors assessed by the questionnaire are mentioned below:
1.    Job suitability and talented recruitment.
2.    Compensation and perks.
3.    Developing positive employee cultures.
4.    Employees trust and confidence on senior leaders.
5.    Positive and advancement opportunities.

3. The Method of Data Collection: The questionnaire of 15 questions were designed and tested upon the employees of different cadre of private and government departments and academicians like Professors, Readers  and Lecturers. The questions have been provided with four options like Agree, Disagree, Strongly Agree and Strongly Disagree. Questionnaire is the best sample to analyze the facts, as it gives spontaneous responses about the firm .Respondents need not to waste time on thinking the responses. In this way, the facts collected from the survey were then analyzed so as to get the correct reasons to find the role of IT in retaining the employees.
 
Chart: Employee Survey Questionnaire
4. Results and Findings: According to the study conducted on industry workers and academicians, it is found that information technology has about 68% of impact on retentions. A survey of 60 employees of various private and government departments and academicians showed that retention was related with quality performance with the involvement of Information Technology. The above mentioned factors assessed by the questionnaire were found to be highly reliable. Above mentioned charts shows the results of above examinations and analysis that people in it industry are less satisfied as compared to the people in academics and banks. So the IT industries must provide good training, perks and work culture to retain the employees.

5. Conclusions: We observed that organizations which spent more time in planning the IT were more successful in retaining the employees, we found that IT has  major impact on organization and its impact is dependent on how the factors for its success is managed. People who are agreed on certain points may not agree on some other aspects. It is observed that the dissatisfaction of employees about the organization was because of no or less communication between them and organization, which can up to a certain limit can be handled with the help of use of IT and its tools. Although there are many notable benefits of IT on retention but there are also the risks such as the cost (administrative cost),, security (Internet security), and confidentiality (in terms of documents), etc.
6. Acknowledgement: We acknowledge and thanks to those who directly and indirectly extended their support and help in completing this paper. We thank Professor and head Computer Department, P.M.B. Gujarati Science College, Professor Nilesh Jain, Conference Secretary, Pioneer Institute, Indore.
We also thank all family members, whose support and considerations made it a success.
At last we thank one and all.

References:
1.    Abirami Devi K and Ranjitham D, (2007), Attrition Rate way to Control, MBA Review Vol. VI, Issues II, February.
2.    B Batra, Information Technology – A scientific Revolution, Kalpaz Publication.
3.    Das, H. (1996),, Retention Policy: Whom to Retain Anyway? Indian Journal of Industrial Relations,  Vol. 32, No. 2, October 1996, 223-232.
4.    Raju, P.V.L. (2004),, Talent Magnet: How to Attract and Retain Star Employees, HRM Review, August, 2004, 11-13.
5.    Tripathi P. C, Personnel Management and Industrial Relations, Sultan Chand & Sons, New Delhi.
6.    http://www.ehow.com/way_5693058_teamwork-employee-retention-strategies.html