These are overall very testing
times which the IT industry albeit the entire industry is facing. I could
actually feel this since I am myself working in the industry. Now-a days if you
are on bench then that definitely means that you are looked down by the
management and the HR personnel. Even for the guys who are on bench it’s a
really anxious time. Every atleast 2 to 3 people come to me stating that they
are desperately looking for projects and have been in bench for last 2 to 3
months etc. This is in sharp contrast to things as they were about 9 months
back wherein we had people who were on bench
for more than a year and yet where not so desperate to get into a
project.
Clearly an indication how the
industry pendulum has swung in the last half a year or so. Each time something
of this kind happens I believe to some extent this is for the benefit of the
industry and would help them become more lean and competitive and at times
revisit their business model as well. Atleast that was a clear affect of 2008
recession, where in IT companies for the first time were forced to come out of
their complacency, it was the first time where in IT companies where forced to
look into their bench and see how better the bench could be used.
As it’s known fact India is fast
loosing it’s cost advantage thanks to our increasing salary costs and because
of other developing economies which have ventured into the market. Hence it’s
extremely important that management of these companies start looking at a
different business model rather than relying just on outsourcing work, because
we are losing ground real fast over there. I always though that a recession or
a slow down definitely is an opportunity for lots of companies to rethink their
strategy and invest some in unexplored areas, kind of a blue ocean (strategy). But
from talking to people in the industry and friends the reaction from the IT
companies have been mostly knee jerk. Where in instead of checking out where to
invest the bench resources and utilize them best, the attitude mostly has been
to do everything possible to reduce the bench strength. The point that we are
missing here is that if somebody is on bench that doesn’t mean he is not skilled
enough or non-employable. There are bench managers in all of these IT
companies, who I think have a very important role in this. Because they have
knowledge of the whole spectrum of people available on the bench hence probably
they help form a bigger picture. Especially for bigger companies there are so
many tools that we use or processes that could be automated that could be done
using these bench resources, but then that needs some investment, which in this
case could be seen as a sunk cost, since it doesn’t generate a revenue upfront.
But in the longer run has the effect of bringing in implicit cost benefits.
These will ideally be a win-win
situation for the employee and the employer. Otherwise what’s happening today
is that the employees are forced to cross skill or get into projects where in
they don’t exactly like or don’t fit in. This might work in the short run, but
once the market scenario improves these people would be the first one to look
out for opportunities and ofcourse our standing in the market as an employer
also takes a beating.
