BENGALURU IS BEST JOB ADDRESS

Sangeetha Chengappa, Bengaluru
The Asian Age

Namma Bengaluru has scored high once again, with Gen Y from 156 locations around the country choosing the IT city as the most preferred workplace. Company reputation, size and management credibility matter most to them when they evaluate potential employers, followed by formal training/learning opportunities that companies provide which will help their careers blossom.

This is in consonance with global studies of Gen Y preferences, which show that they particularly like companies that are high on corporate social responsibility (CSR).

These were some of the findings of a nation-wide survey of over 5,300 students across disciplines ranging from engineering to management, undertaken by AssessPeople, a workforce assessment services company based in Chennai, during September-October 2008.

Says R Kannan, CEO, AssessPeople, "A majority of the future workforce have zeroed in on Bengaluru as the most favoured location to work in, followed closely by the National Capital Region (NCR) and Mumbai. Telecom, IT and financial services are the sectors they prefer most."

In a sign of the times, the company’s India Attrition Survey of 2008 revealed that HR professionals find ‘sourcing’ the primary challenge, and not retention, which is now a secondary challenge.

Aseem Marwaha, co-founder of eLitmus Evaluation, an entry-level assessment company, had a different take on Gen Y preferences. Tier I Engineering segment, comprising of IIT and NIT students, value work content the most if two companies were to offer them the same salary, but "given a 25 percent differential in salary, they wouldn’t bother to work with a company even though the work content there may be great," Marwaha said. "Besides, in 50 percent of the cases, they would prefer to work with a start-up rather than a large, well-known company simply for the sheer exhilaration of meeting new challenges every day."

The brand image of a company counts only in the case of students from Tier II engineering colleges, who prefer large MNCs over Indian companies. In Tier III colleges, students go by what society, parents and peers seem to perceive of the brand, he pointed out.

MeritTrac co-founder Madan Padaki believes that it is not so simple. A combination of three factors plays on the minds of job-seekers when they have to choose which company to work for. A fair compensation package, a company that treats its employees well and a workplace where they have opportunities to constantly learn and receive training to further their careers are all factors that Gen Y job-seekers consider before they join a company, he said.