With a raging pandemic potentially threatening their business prospects, Indian companies are putting extra efforts into employee retention.
In line with companies across the Asia Pacific region, Indian firms have increased their spending on employee engagement and wellbeing, and training and development, among other measures that can help in staff retention, according to a survey by LinkedIn. The increase in budget for current employees comes at a time when companies in the Asia Pacific region have cut hiring spends by around 30% due to an “uncertain business outlook,” the survey said.
The findings are based on a quantitative 20-minute online survey filled by over 3,500 small, medium, and large companies across Australia, China, India, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore.
Even as fresh hiring is on the back burner for most companies right now, there are attempts being made to fill up positions internally.
Internal hiring is the new normal
To fill up open positions, companies in the Asia Pacific region are opting for internal hiring over bringing in new talent, the survey showed.
“For employers, onboarding processes are simplified (when they hire internally) which means the speed to hire can generally be accelerated and hiring costs can be reduced,” LinkedIn said. “For employees, a change of role can be rewarding as it allows them a chance to enhance their skills, develop new interests, and gain a more holistic understanding of the organisation.”
However, hiring internally comes with its own challenges. “The most obvious concern is a lack of resources (time and cost),” the report added.