Upgrading skills and multi-tasking best options during slowdown: Study

Inclination to add value to the organization through added responsibilities and multi-tasking is a preferred style of creating an edge. Others believe in spreading the risk and hence feel that venturing into alternate sources for income (52%) or being an entrepreneur (50%) is the best option. Moving to government jobs is the least of the considered options inviting a dismal 30% approval.TeamLease Services released the findings of its latest survey Changing Expectations at Workplace in view of the current economic slowdown on March 3, 2009. This is the sixth survey commissioned by TeamLease in a series to understand Indias new World of Work.

According to the study, companies are adding responsibilities on the staff coupled with cuts in the salaries to get maximum value from their employees. HR personnel also observe that while many employees perceive uncertainty and job insecurity, quite a good number of them feel their company is stable.

Additionally, companies are witnessing changes like implementing stringent performance metrics and cutting costs on infrastructure expenditure, reveals the study.

Around 27% of the employees have changed their Financial Planning pattern due to the current economic slowdown. Employees from Mumbai followed closely by Ahmedabad have changed their pattern the most, followed by Kolkata while Pune employees have made the least changes.

40% of the respondents felt that the current economic slowdown has had a negative impact on their career. Maximum negative impact was felt in the metros of Mumbai and Delhi. Pune and Kolkata are the least affected.
Overall, Looking out for a job irrespective of existing CTC and Handling additional responsibility are the most common changes that people have been compelled to make due to the recession. Though relatively lower, it is still surprising to see that 43% respondents have had to change their role / department to keep their employment safe, while a smaller 24% had to change their sector itself!

City wise, employees from Hyderabad are least likely to be looking out for a job irrespective of existing CTC, while three in every four respondents in Mumbai and Pune are looking for a change. Hyderabad on the other hand has experienced demotions and change in roles but not many have changed from their existing sector. Retrenchment is highest in Mumbai followed by Delhi and Ahmedabad, but low in Chennai and Pune.

Retrenchment relatively higher in Sales, Marketing, Business Development and Operations domains. IT, Finance & HR/Admin provide a supportive function which is an enabler to business, hence the effect felt in these functions is relatively lower.
According to Surabhi Mathur-Gandhi, General Manager, Permanent Staffing, TeamLease Services, This crisis is the first low tide for a younger generation of workers that have only known high tide. The only upside of this tragedy is that expectations are becoming realistic on both sides with unintended positive consequences like multi-skilling, higher productivity and cross-functional exposure. This reinforces that flexibility and resilience are inevitable concomitants of the youthification of Indias workforce.

The survey respondents included both employees and HR personnel across the cities of Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune. The employee respondents profile ranged between the age group 2245 years across the departments of sales, marketing, business development, operations, finance, admin/HR and systems (IT).

A structured questionnaire was administered by global research firm Synovate for TeamLease using a mix of telephonic and computer-aided-telephonic-interviewing (CATI) technology to working adults across eight major cities during the period of February 2009 for a total sample size of 402 (350 employees and 52 HR Heads)