On September 8, 2007 PGPM participants of S P Jain Institute of Management & Research (SPJIMR) organized an HRM Conclave" sauHRida "to address the issue of attrition ('sauHRida is a Sanskrit word which means Friendship'). The main objective of sauHRida was to provide some insight into the best practices and solutions being adopted by Global Corporate giants to retain its talent pool and tackle the issue of Attrition and Build Commitment of the employees toward their employers. Also to explore new possibilities to address this issue of attrition and building commitment.

The HRM conclave was attended by dignitaries of the Indian Corporate such as Mr. TV Mohandas Pai (Global HR Head - Infosys), Mr. G. Ravindran (Sr. VP & Global HR Head - Covansys), Mr. Sanjay Singh (VP-HR, Whirlpool Asia), Mr. Abhay Valsangkar (Sr. Director-HR, Symantec), Ms. Madhavi Lall (HR Head - Standard Chartered India) and Mr. Debiprasad Das (Sr. GM-HR, Atos Origin).

"To acquire, nurture and retain the best talent is the challenge the HR heads are facing currently", Prof Sunil Rai (Joint Director SPJIMR) added. Prof Lata Dhir (Program Coordinator) sparked the programme & introduced the HR related issues by saying. "Money and Job Security are hygiene factors whereas Motivation and Growth are the add-ons that the employees require currently."

There were a series of events in the program, which started with Margdarshan wherein Mr.Sanjay Singh, Mr. Ravindran G and Mr. Pai shared their views on people-issues and what their respective companies were doing to arrest it.

Mr. Singh highlighted the role of HR in today's organizations & added, "Primary role of HR is to serve the needs of the business with employee as a stakeholder." He also added "A goal is not a goal, if you don't have emotional stake in it." Mr. Ravindran started his speech by quoting that he had some special liking for this institute. He also presented some shocking facts, "A percent reduction in the attrition adds a couple of millions to bottom-line straight away." He showcased the various people-retention initiatives e.g. "Team Oxygen", "Samskruthi", "Binergy" etc. which reduced the attrition from 25.7% in 2004 to 17.8% in 2006. To follow was the most awaited speaker, Mr. Mohandas Pai. Mr. Pai gave altogether a different perspective by saying that attrition is healthy and it is promoted by many organizations as their policy. He also spoke about how Infosys as an organization put values, ecosystem, policy and frameworks at the core to address the attrition. He said that it is necessary to evolve a differential HR policy to address the people-issues that arise during Mergers and Acquisitions. Mr. Pai attributed the causes of attrition to growing opportunities because of big multinationals coming to India and emergence of new industries e.g. Retail.

Margdarshan was followed by Manthan wherein shortlisted candidates from all-over India presented innovative approaches to reduce attrition in their respective organizations. The finalists were from L & T and Lucid Infotech.
Next event in the programme was Mantrana, wherein there was panel discussion on attrition. Prof. Prem Chandrani of SPJIMR moderated the panel which comprised of Mr. Valsangkar, Ms. Lall and Mr. Das. Mr. Das started the discussion by urging the organizations to better accept the attrition phenomenon so that relationship between organization and an employee can be made fruitful. "It's better to focus on the customer and strong delivery processes to minimize the impact." Ms. Lall contributed to the discussion by saying, "the attrition should not be considered at the organizational level but at individual function level to get a clearer picture." Mr. Valsangkar proposed rather a different perspective, "Attrition is not a paradigm rather people-retention is. We need to focus on existing people and not the exiting ones and devise your action-plan accordingly." The panel also discussed various means to reduce the attrition such as differential compensation based on performance reviews, working out individual development plans, talking to ex-employees, creating focus groups to identify potential exits etc.

Though the HRM Conclave was organized in SPJIMR for the very first time, it was immensely successful in receiving an overwhelming response from the Indian Corporate. The PGPM participants have set a successful trend, here's wishing all the best to SPJIMR & PGPM for an illustrious journey ahead.