Pain points in e-Governance - 3 : Resource Hopping
Resource Hopping
Government, while implementing various e-Governance project, hire man power from market on contractual basis in various capacity to fill up various technical skill gaps. Most of the times their salary/package is on par with the market.
Unlike private sector, hiring process in government has long approval cycle and bench is not allowed. By the time interview is scheduled 1/5th of the candidates refuse to attend interview, siting long gap from application to interview. And in the interview, many candidate’s skill set never matches to their attractive 'CV’. We hire them for particular period, which most of the candidates are not willing. With all these pain, once appointment letter is issued to the candidate, three in ten refuses to join quoting wonderful reasons like, I need gym, office is not good, I can’t travel, I can’t work on Saturday, I need canteen, I can’t work after 5m, etc., etc. Later in many instances we have come to know that, these candidates have used our appointment letter as a means of bargain with many other company for better package.
Once a resource is hired, he will be put in to work with brief training/orientation. Most of the time department does not make any agreement or Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA) with new appointee. Many of the new resources keep looking for better alternative while in assignment, quoting short contract period or job security or package is less. If they get good package, many just vanish in to thin air, without serving notice period. Government will not be in a position to retain those resources by hike, as a matter of policy. If you ask them to serve notice period, you will hear all kinds of stories or get powerful calls directing us to relieve them at once.
The working knowledge and investment made on them for training or sponsored certification programme's by Government on these recourse’s just goes with them. Iteration so high in government. Many times I feel these people treat government contractual jobs as a stop gap arrangement/pit stop jobs. As a result there will be greater impact on service delivery, due to huge dependency on resources. Till new resources is hired and trained, the project hampers. If it is critical resource nobody can imagine the situation of the person in-charge of that project.
Yes, we cannot blame the resources aspiration to grow quickly. Job insecurity, growing demands for more comfort, need for more challenging jobs, desire for higher positions etc., has pushed skilled resources to keep hopping. This is not illegal. But some where I feel something is wrong in these kinds of jumps, in terms of ethics and institutional interest.
I am aware that this trend is prevalent in private sector too, since they have bench, they can handle it in a better way. And as for as government is concerned, once again the process of approval starts, since there is no additional resource in the bench.
Disclaimer: Purely personal opinion.
Very valid point... Hiring services from a reputed company seems to be a viable option... Although it could be a bit costly affair...
ReplyDeleteI agree, even reputed companies are facing this issue.
DeleteAbsolutely right.. Even we have faced bit difficulties when the resources leave the job at once for silly reasons. The government has to take a call like contact/agreement basis and promotion and growth for all resources too. So that all feel that the job is quite interesting and better learning/ opportunity can be expected.
ReplyDeleteGovt job is quite interesting. Department do take contract/agreement, but usually it is not enforced individually, thinking it may affect future career of youths. Unfortunately contract jobs has lot of limitation including promotion opportunity.
DeleteAttrition or leaving or changing jobs is a universal phenomenon. No body can change this. Even agreements or penalties cannot stop this. ET reports "The technology services industry saw 12% attrition in 2020 amid the Covid-19 pandemic-induced slowdown. By the end of 2021 however, the IT-BPM sector is likely to look at a 22% attrition rate." Therefore we need to factor this into our project or requirements. Therefore it's best left to the IT companies to manage this, which they are managing. Regarding Government hiring resources, it's less said the better. Most of the Government appointments are under influence and Recommendations. Further those who join the Government look for security than performance. It's difficult either to remove them or disincentise them. Since they have their sponsors in the government to support them. I don't say that reputed IT firms are great. However it's prudent to depend on the lesser evil, the proven reputed IT companies, where the government can demand and get the required service and the lack of the same can be penalized
Deletehmm, agreed.
DeleteAbsolutely right.. Even we have faced bit difficulties when the resources leave the job at once for silly reasons. The government has to take a call like contact/agreement basis and promotion and growth for all resources too. So that all feel that the job is quite interesting and better learning/ opportunity can be expected.
ReplyDeleteThank you
DeleteIdeally one should have some loyalty for the government as it impacts all our lives for goverent programs. We need to create an environment where these resources take the pride to work for government and still achieve their reasonable monetary goals. We can look at this aspects when we interview as well. Though difficult to identify but not impossible
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteVery true. Loyalty is very rare to find these days. Fortunately there are many loyal resources working in government, because of which we are able to do something.
DeleteYou are right, government should have simple procedure for resources hiring with some promotion aspects with long-term engagement with disclaimer and agreement so project should not get hampered so as to protect public service.
ReplyDeleteYes
DeleteI agree sir. People don't consider contractual government jobs as opportunity to learn & serve. As you said in first blog ego in e governance also impacts overall development of project.
ReplyDeleteIt's very difficult to find people like you Omkar, How can department forget your contribution. I still remember your presence in department, even after you left your origination.
DeleteIt's true sir, still we didn't understand why government introduced Contact employment, Because of this we can not complete any projects/works with in a duration and as expected and also government can't give any services (G2C/G2G/G2B) as expected. Good employment leads to better government development. Contract employment is temporary nature & it's only a temporary solution for the works.
ReplyDeleteYes, initially contract jobs in e Governance was created to fill the immediate technical gap, so that the projects can go live, hoping that in due course permanent employees will learn and fill the gap. The gap kept on increasing.
DeleteGovernment departments are not made for software development, Government businesses are different from software companies, all the projects and services are outsourced for different reasons then what's the need of having permanent technical or software development resources, it's double expenditure for the Government, egovernance department is not meant for revenue generation it's for serving different departments and creating egovernance in the administration, resources are used for training if it's not covered under during the project outsourcing, so having software engineers and thinking to have them for long duration is beneficial to officers to recruit kids and relatives and friends kids and give some sort of foundation for their career it won't help in any means to the tax payers. To avoid double expenditure in the name of human resources and outsourcing projects...Government need to think what is best having resources or outsourcing complete project and implement it within stipulated period of time....
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you. state government should create a Software Engineers cadre just like PWD, Health etc., which gives job Security and also growth.
DeleteThe contractual hiring of resource or skillful person by govt department in India definitely has its own pros n cons. The tedious process should first be changed. I still don't know why govt department likes to make things as complex as possible n later suffer the consequences. As far as jump is concern again it's upto to the individual as they say 'if you are good at something, never do it for free'. Wherever they get hike they feel to take a jump. And regarding ethics, contribution to society & social responsibility, only very least people are bothered(either contractual or permanent)
ReplyDeleteAgreed, because of these 'least people' something good is happening in governance.
DeleteSir, I agree with you. Sure to face the issues as rightly pointed out here if one opt to hire man power / human resource directly. Hiring an agency for resourcing man power with stringent contract may put an end to them, at least to a larger extent. Two more suggestions from my experience is to outsource the complete project or to create a separate cadre of technical personnel for recruitment.
ReplyDeleteI totally concur with your suggestion of crating a separate cadre.
DeleteYes, you know where it pinches. Public simply make comments about government and public servants. When asked be part of the government each one will think of his benefits. You and big bosses in government know the problems . There is need to address it on priority as we all are heading for faceless transactions with government in future. I am sure you must have tried to find solution to this problem. I know you did your best.
ReplyDeleteYes, we are moving towards faceless, contact less and cashless system, hence creation of a cadre is crucial for government. So that benefits can be reached at right time and felt.
DeleteYes, I agree that hiring resources with requisite skills and retaining them is a tedious task in the Government. Thus, instead of hiring individuals, it is appropriate to engage/hire agency to provide resources with desired qualification, experiance and skill set for duration as per requirement. In case any resource leaving then agency will be responsible for replacement and knowledge transfer. In case of frequent changes, penalty may be imposed on the agency as per Service level Agreement finalized.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree sir. Good companies are also facing resources issue. Companies/Firms do take government assignment, due to their own various reason. And they factor SLA penalty in there quotes. This is the new trend, what i have observed.
DeleteHiring contractual has become a new norm in many places. Government should not take this path. To get good talent, govt sectors should compete with pvt companies. If not, govt will have huge challenges in managing and delivering. Even the work place need to be improved. I personally would not have worked in government offices with type of infrastructure they provide.
ReplyDeleteYes, i totally agree. Work places need huge facelift.
DeleteBrilliantly put in the most detailed way and one can understand very easily .. It's a statement of facts .. Although , I agree that it is the option of a guy to have the job of his choice , because of better wages , facility, working conditions etc there shall be some sort of conditions to be fulfilled before vacating the previous office .The Governement office can not be used as a platform for jumping to an another one after the guy got some working training and experiance .. The Government shall also put some conditions at the time of appointment either for on a regular basis appointment or for on an outsourced one ...Such strictures shall not be loaded either in favour of the Employee or the Employer .... In the absense of this the work will be hampered indefinitely ,as outsourcing again ,training etc takes lot of time ...There should be a sort of giving advance notice to the employer before vacating the office ...
ReplyDeleteThank you sir. System needs to evolve for win win situation.
DeleteThese are excellent points. Some points that you raise are unique to Government sector, but many are faced by private sector too. For eg, smaller software companies won’t be able to provide job security, great working environment, growth opportunities, and compelling projects. So they lose out.
ReplyDeleteOne way many government around the world attack this problem is by working with contracting companies instead of individuals. I have seen this in US, Germany and France. Many of these contracting companies specialize in government contracts and you can offload the resourcing risk to them. Not sure who’s feasible it is for your situation
Yes, its very unique to government.
DeleteThis is the ground reality. However, we need a mechanism to deal with such situations. Because, quite often creating permanent positions results in poor performance and liability at that level in Govt sector unlike pvt sector. Only concern with hoppers is data security and compromise of secrecy.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree sir.
DeleteI see the issue in a different angle, but would like to tell the facts not to criticize or find fault with the system, with my limited experience with Government.
ReplyDeleteThis is a known fact that the contract job is a stop gap arrangement, most of the candidates will join with half mind very few like the nature of work, this is first reason for hopping.
2) The role selected for and the actual work assigned is not fit or liked by contractors most of the time.
3)It is known fact working with government officials, one needs to completely surrender to their whims and fancies and very little liberty to work their full potential and taking decisions or even suggesting ideas, no one cares for contract employees and they are blamed for not completing the work for the decisions taken in last minute without much clarity.
Work need to be competed as per higher authorities’ decisions and no one will be able to either question them or will be able to suggest any of their thoughts or ideas, it is not the case in MNCs
4)Contract employees are taken for
Granted and treatment by higher officials isn't good most of the time, except for some exceptions’.Good and very good officers are also there in the system.
5)Treatment of their permanent employees is entirely different while working with Contract employees that is the main reason candidates try to complete contract period Or leave in between.
If the treatment of contract employees is same as permanent employees in all respects they can retain even contract employees.
These are some of my observations while
Working with Government of Andhra Pradesh and GOK.
Your are right. We need to create a win win mechanism. And i also feel, government employee should graciously acknowledge that resources are hired because they lack that particular skill set, similarly hired resource should understand that he has been hired for particular task.
DeleteWell said sir
DeleteVery true and valid sir
DeleteYes, agreed. Having said that I believe employee attrition problem is present all over the globe.
ReplyDeleteThe ways to manage would be having a good workplace environment, retention policies, outsourcing recruitment to consultancy and job security.
Totally agreed
DeleteAgree. Job insecurity is one of the prime factor in people jumping from one job to another which is there in every sector. Cutting short the recruiting process and holding back a part of the salary which will be paid together at the end of contract period with interest on withheld salary May compensate for loss caused by the hoppers and can act as incentive for those willing to work till the end of contract , the accumulated money acts as a take away at the end of contract.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your views, i concur with your view of cutting short the recruiting process is crucial.
DeleteAbsolutely right, Sir. Lateral hiring with Industry standard salary might be a solution rather than contract. Then resources can be utilized in any Govt project irrespective of Dept.
ReplyDeleteLateral entry has been adopted to high level post so far. This option can be explored by government for all technical jobs.
DeleteTrue!! It’s a universal issue with all IT companies. Still, we can’t deny the fact that, most of the IT companies are making big amount from business by tackling this problem one or the other way except government IT department it seems. I believe, In case if government decides to minimize this issue in their IT departments , surely it can achieve it with proper planning. My few opinion on how this can be tackled or can plan to minimise the impact.
ReplyDelete- Proper planning on cut down the approval cycle or hiring process. For quality resources , pay them well as per the industry standard and give a job guarantee. Build a quality HR team to achieve this goal. There is quote from Richard Branson, Founder Of The Virgin Group .. He says, “Take Care Of Your Employees And They'll Take Care Of Your Business,” .
- A quote says "People don't leave a company, they leave their boss" .So, have to make sure that, the resource will be treated with respect. It’s like a give respect & take work and respect back policy. Provide clarity of goal, role, career growth path and share the projects bigger picture with resource. Definitely this helps to reduce the resource hopping . For all important projects, prepare one of the team members as a backup resource who should know in and out of the project details with main resource.
- Or Collaborate with different resource outsourcing company. The resources payroll will be taken care by Resource outsource company and Government get the required skilled sources. In case resource quits for some reasons, the outsourcing company will align new resource for the projects with no delay.
And now days, ethics and institutional interest are truly money driven things and can’t expect these values from 99% of the ppl.
Pay them on par with industry, job guarantee, back up resources, out source are all viable options in various scenarios, but in Toto it's difficult for government.
DeleteThere is huge difference between industry and government in terms of accountability. For government everyone is stake holder, unlike a industry which has targeted stakeholders.
Treat them with respect, giving them big picture, etc, depends on a team lead and also the interest of resources.
I totally concur with your statement "...now days, ethics and institutional interest are truly money driven things and can’t expect these values from 99% of the ppl."
DeletePurely my personal thought again.
ReplyDeleteI see techies from private companies fighting over left and right politics in working hours with fellow colleagues. But not step out to work for government and make some change in the system itself.
Most of us in our schooling, we were dreaming of serving our country in all the possible ways. Maybe we mature and change. Or our fundamental education is really weak.
Yes, i also feel, there is need for reforms in basic education system.
DeleteAlso if there is something like Israel. To mandate serving government depending on the field they serve in, can make a real difference. Selection process of candidates for government jobs also can be reformed.
DeleteWe can teach someone any skill set with some time to spare. But we can never teach someone loyalty. Am learning this in a hard way. And it's true in every level in all fields ✌🏾
DeleteVery true
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteVery true ajayna3
DeleteThe article is articulated so beautifully, addressing most of the issues faced by the Government in engaging the contractual resources, which by far has been the main problem in any of the e-Governance projects.
ReplyDeleteHere I would like to provide few inputs which are purely based on my experience in working with e-Governance Projects.
Hiring process in government has long approval cycle
This process can be completely owned and executed by the Hiring agencies in providing the right candidate. But the onus on deciding the candidature for the project should lie with the govt.
Hiring right resources
Finding a right candidate is never possible to any job profile as there is no such perfect candidate for the any desired job. But finding the right attitude in the candidate with at least 60-70% of the skills matching as per the job description is all we need to look for.
Conclusions
Contract resources are at a risk of losing their jobs when the contract ends. A resource will always opt to take up a better opportunity now, than wait till the contract ends.
Government should look into tying up with the reputed organisation or a well know organizations directly for recruiting the resources for the given time period. I understand their prices are high but at the same time when compared to the failure of the project due to non-availability of the resources which will end up at the greater costs to the project.
When the resources are hired through the reputed organizations, both the Govt and the resource can overcome job insecurities. Like Govt doesn’t have to worry about the replacement as the onus of replacing the resource with the similar skill sets lies with the organisation that provides the resources.
Secondly, for any skilled resources working for the reputed organisation is more important than working for any small vendors. Mainly because -
· Working for the stable organizations add value to the resume
· On-time salary at the end of every month
· Job Security - Even after the contract ends with the Govt projects, the resources will still have other projects to work within the organisation.
Other basic benefits apart from the salary as such
· Medical Insurance for self and family.
· Standard percentage of PF from both the employers and employees are contributed to the EPF,
· Paid Leave
· Gratuity
· Skill development.
· Travel Allowances
I assume none of the basic benefits are considered by any of the small vendors.
Hence in my opinion, the problem of resource hopping can be reduced drastically only when the Govt ties up with the reputed firm for smooth running of the project, rather than entrusting this to small vendors. The cost may look high in the beginning but not at the cost of failure of the project for sure. Even if Govt considers small vendors in the market then the Govt should make it mandatory for providing at least basic benefits apart from the salary as mentioned in the above points for the resources.
If the project is so important then may be the decision maker should also look into the bidding prospects and stress more on QCBS method rather than lowest bid. It is a sad affair to see exploiting the lowest bidder further more by calling them for negotiations. In fact Govt sometimes don’t understand that, it backfires them the most than those small vendors.
Absolutely right. L1 concept is killing many projects.
DeleteVery aptly written! Basically, the Job hopping syndrome is the direct outcome of the ambitious career growth intentions & is indeed prevalent in almost all sectors, and in all the other domains. However, after investing on extensive resource training, Private sectors handles the situation in a more stern manner by flagging them red. But, yes, such an action cannot be enforced from the government standpoint in India. Especially in a country where every individual is backed by a diplomat or a powerful politicians. That is an absolute plight of India.
ReplyDelete"...where every individual is backed by a diplomat or a powerful politicians." is very true in most of the cases.
DeleteYes Sir! I value the insights and guidance you provide.
ReplyDeleteI Agree that hiring resources with skills and retaining them is a motivated task in the Government sector.
You are an asset to CeG
DeleteVery well articulated. The solution is available. Managed services concept. Government will concentrate on its business of governance. Government shall state it's requirements or provide problem statement. A seperate entity (not connected to Government Or a Government department) shall provide the service. Hire private sector firm to provide the Managed Services to Government. They would provide the entire/total IT services to Government (means all departments, undertakings, any organization where government has interest). In this managed services there's no need for departments to float seperate tenders or hire resources. This managed services would not come cheap. However for the Government and the bureaucracy to accept this concept is not easy.
ReplyDeleteYes
Delete