The most common concern of companies across verticals today is that of talent crunch. Businesses often complain that the large talent pool lacks quality and is not “industry-ready.” Companies spend enormous amount of time, money and effort in “skilling” their employees but to no avail. They try to keep employees in good humour through retention plans but attrition continues to be a huge problem. The issue is not about talent creation or retention but about improving productivity, says a survey conducted by global HR services provider Kronos.

“With workforce productivity becoming a key focus globally and more so in workforce intensive ma­rkets such as India, it is cr­itical to understand the fa­ctors that impact workfo­rce productivity so that organisations can take measures to improve their competitiveness,” says James Thomas, country manager, India operations of Kronos.

The Kronos – PeopleM­atters survey took inputs from 215 respondents including 30 HR heads across the IT, BPO, manufacturing, healthcare, hospitality and retail verticals. The survey found out that hiring and retaining talent is among the most important workforce challenges in India. However, improving productivity, which has never been a HR domain before, has now become a main concern for the departments.