NEW DELHI: Cadence Design System, the Indian offshore development center of the EDA tools giant, is the 'best employer' in the IT industry according to Dataquest-IDC ‘Best Employer Survey 2003’. It replaced Infosys, which was last year's best employer. TCS and HP are ranked number two and three, respectively. Infosys at fourth position with IBM at number 5 completes the best five IT employers in the country. Despite losing its position as the best employer in India, Infosys is still looked up as the dream company for IT employees in the country.

The survey, in its third edition, reveals that most of the effects of recession on the HR environment in the country seem to have receded. Unfortunately, though fewer people complained of cut in salary increments and perks, the employee morale is not looking up yet.

In addition, seven new companies made it to the Top 20 Best Employers list for the first time including - Computer Sciences Corporation, Siemens Information Systems, WeP Peripherals, Oracle India, RMSI and Chennai-based Accel ICIM Systems and Services.

Overall some key industry parameters have improved. Attrition rates decreased from an average of 12.3 percent in 2002 to 9.5 percent in 2003. At the same time annual retention rates also marginally improved from 88 percent to 89 percent. From the employee perspective – though fewer employees spoke of cuts in salaries, increments and perks there was a continuing trend towards increasing the variable components of salaries across most companies. This was a trend set into motion by the IT services sector about two years ago. Last year the rest of the industry also caught up to it.

The DQ-IDC annual Best Employers Survey is an exhaustive process that includes feedback from both HR heads of companies and the employees. Questionnaires were first sent out to around 200 IT companies in the country asking for comprehensive details on a wide range of HR facts and figures on attrition and retention rates, the average tenure of its top management, salary bands and training data etc. Based on these parameters 26 companies were short-listed and employees of these companies were then surveyed. This face-to-face survey sought detailed information on all aspects of the HR environment including overall satisfaction, company culture, job content and growth prospects and people within the company. This year IDC met 1000 employees from 26 companies across 6 cities in the country to arrive at its results.

(Cyber News Service)