EMPLOYEE

SELECTION AND RETENTION - WIPRO

1. ABSTRACT

This study critically evaluates the recruitment, selection and retention strategies of
Wipro Technologies, India. Wipro Technologies is one largest global information
technology services, headquartered in India. Wipro endeavours to be perfect
partner for the organizations looking at the transformational solutions in the
information technology due its core potential, adequate human resources, and
commitment to quality as well as global infrastructure for delivering the broad
ranges of technology and business consulting services as well as solutions. Since
Wipro has got vital success in India and become one of the largest IT based
organization in the world, Microsoft, the worlds IT giant has taken an initiative to
acquire Wipro. All the processes of acquisitions are under progress. Thus, since
Wipro is going through an organizational transformation, being an HR assistant in
Wipro I have been asked to review the current, recruitment, selection and retention
strategies of Wipro, considering the expectations of Microsoft.

The significant objective of this research is to critically review the recruitment,
selection and retention strategies at Wipro. In addition this study also review the
relevant literature related to, recruitment, selection and retention. This research is
based on the secondary data collected from various academic journals, publication,
websites and magazines. It has been found that considering the recruitment process
in Wipro, after identifying the requirements of human resource Wipro conduct job
analysis, job description and job specification procedure. It is also found that in
selecting the employees Wipro follow unique three steps of procedures. The three
round procedures are written test, technical interview along with HR interview.
Verbal, Technical and General Aptitude are the three sections under written test.
Meanwhile it has been identified in this study that, compensation and benefits,
employee rewards, work environment, career development and training and
development are the strategies pursued as part of employee retention.

2. INTRODUCTION



Human Resources are the term utilized for describing the people who involve in the
organizations work force. Organizations use the term human resources to describe
the workforce capacity available to assign to the accomplishment of their strategies
(Wilson, 2005). According to the statement given by Mathis and Jackson (2010)
human resource management comprises managing people from a macro
perspective that means management of people in the form of collective relationship
between employees as well as management. The objectives and the results of human
resource management functions are focused by this approach. The HR functions in
an organization are concerned with employee enabling, employee development, and
focusing on establishing the relationship satisfying for both employees and
management. There are several activities performed by human resource
management such as, human resource workforce analysis and planning,
recruitment, selection and retention of employees, performance management,
training and development, compensation and reward management, employee
motivation, employee relations etc. (Wilson, 2005).

Effectual recruitment, selection and retention are the key to the flourishing
businesses. Recruiting, selecting right person at the right time, for the right position
is an essential to the success of an organization. Therefore, quality staffs and their
potential skills, knowledge and qualifications could be considered as the direct
indicator of the quality of the overall provision (Dennis, 2007). As far as the todays
business is concerned a significant focus on recruitment and retention is very
imperative. Because, organisations are aware that competitiveness is formulated
from talent and it pursues that recruitment, selection and retention can be just not
considered as the issues in human resources but it is vital part of business strategy
(Mathis and Jackson, 2010). Today human capital management lies along with
business strategy, thus it can be ascertained by the organization that, they have got
the right people at the right time and at the right place (Mathis and Jackson, 2010).
It is apparent that recruitment constitutes a major part of the overall resourcing
strategy of the organization, that identifies, and secure required employees for the
organization for surviving and succeeding in the short to medium term. The
activities of recruitment must be receptive to the competitive market in order for
securing high quality and potential workforce at all times. These initiatives must
comprise how to and when to source the best recruits internally or externally to be
effectual. Recruitment can be referred as the process of attracting, screening, and
selecting potential employees for the appropriate jobs in the organization, while the
process of selection can be referred as the process through organizations selects
from the pool of applicants (Wilson, 2005).


This research study is based on the organization that is Wipro. Wipro Technologies
is one largest global information technology services, headquartered in India. Wipro
endeavours to be perfect partner for the organizations looking at the
transformational solutions in the information technology due its core potential,
adequate human resources, and commitment to quality as well as global
infrastructure for delivering the broad ranges of technology and business consulting
services as well as solutions. Since Wipro has got vital success in India and become
one of the largest IT based organization in the world, Microsoft, the worlds IT giant
has taken an initiative to acquire Wipro. All the processes of acquisitions are under
progress. Thus, since Wipro is going through an organizational transformation,
being an HR assistant in Wipro I have been asked to review the current, recruitment,
selection and retention strategies of Wipro, considering the expectations of
Microsoft.

2.1 Objectives of the study

There are two vital objectives derived for this study; they are;

To critically review the recruitment, selection and retention strategies at
Wipro.
To review the relevant literature related to, recruitment, selection and
retention.

2.1 Methodology

This research is based on the secondary data collected from various academic
journals, publication, websites and magazines.

2.3 Scope of this study

This study enables to identify the recruitment, selection and retention strategies of
Wipro, by underpinning the relevant literature with regards to recruitment,
selection and retention. Moreover this study enables Wipro to evaluate the different


recruitment and selection techniques and the current tactics pursued by retaining
employees.

3. LITERATURE REVIEW/DISCUSSION

3.1 Introduction

The key functions of the Human Resource department of any organization are
recruitment, selection and retention, and this is a continuous process. All
companies try in various ways to achieve the set goals of the company, along with
attaining the consumer satisfaction (Berger, 2009). According to Armstrong
(2008) for accomplishing the planned human resource results, it is highly
imperative that the concerned organizations should rely on ingeniously drafted
human resource tactics. In general, the main expected human resource results are:
The accessibility: The underlined essence of this factor is that
organizations should have easy access to skilled labour, at correct times.
Proficiency: The workforce must be truly adept and skilled.
Motivation: Motivation is a key factor, which will make the workforce
highly responsible, and of the generally accepted form of motivating the
employees is the salary.
Fitness: The general fitness of the workforce also counts a lot in their
overall efficiency level.
Responsible: All managers should make their subordinate staff
responsible, and should give them more powers for doing their designated
works.
Planned & Controlled: All organizations with good organizational
structures for planning and controlling the various stages will come out
successful.
Assortment of workforce: If an organization can manage to secure the
services of skilled employees belonging to different nationalities, it will be
able to perform in a much better way.
Satisfied employees: Satisfaction of the employees counts a lot in the final
run; if the workforce is kept satisfied, then they will perform with will and
vigor, and thereby the organization can achieve its set goals.



3.2Recruitment and Selection

Recruitment is a main HR process. Once the task of analysing the job is over, the
next stage is recruitment. Through the process of analysing, the HR department
fixes the nature and number of the required workforce (Dennis, 2007).

3.2.1. Recruitment Defined

All organizations would like to recruit the needed workforce at bare minimum costs.
As per the opinion of Wilson (2005), recruitment is the method of attracting and
selecting new employees. Ehlers (2010) also gives a similar definition to the process
of recruiting, and says that it is the overall process of advertising, attracting and
selecting the needed skilled workforce. The overall process of recruitment involves
various tasks like depicting the nature of the job, and expected qualifications and
skills of the wanted employees, through diverse sources and thereby attracting the
attention of prospective candidates. Under this background, it can be said that a job
description of an organization will contain certain factors like designation of the
job, various ways to apply for it, location of the work, where to apply, brief
description of the work, and the working environment.

3.2.2. Purposes and Policies

It should be mentioned here that the task of recruitment will not end, as soon as an
employee is selected, in fact it is a much deeper and livelier process. The main aim of
recruitment is to give the company a rich team of skilled workers, and the precise
objectives of recruitment are:
To supply the company the desired ratio of talented workforce and thereby
help the firm to achieve the set goals.
To enhance the individual performance, and thereby the overall
organizational efficacy, both for short and long terms (James, 2007)

Policies:

It is highly imperative that the germane recruitment strategies are carried out in a
cohesive and methodical way, with the wholehearted support of the concerned
managers and their subordinates, for attaining the set goals of any organization. The
specific objectives of the concerned organization will be reflected in its recruitment


policy, and it also gives the needed guidelines for executing that particular policy
(James, 2007).

3.3Recruitment Process

In general it can be stated that the process of recruitment is the key task of all HR
departments, and it is the initial phase of gaining the competitive edge for the
company. The whole process involves some methodical steps like finding out the
candidates, conducting selection processes including personal interviews and finally
selecting the qualified candidates (Berger, 2009) .

3.4Sources of Recruitment

There are mainly two types of recruitment sources; internal and external.
Internal recruitment means filling the open positions from the pool of internal staff
and external recruitment means, finding out qualified staff for the needed position,
from and through external sources (Mathis and Jackson, 2010) .

3.4.1 Internal recruitment:

There are diverse methods of internal recruitments like promotions, transfers, or
from the relatives or other dependents of the existing employees.

3.4.2 Benefits of internal recruitment:

The main benefit of internal recruitment is that it helps to build-up the self-
confidence and self-esteem of the concerned individual employees and this will of
course enhance his or her productivity level. Another notable feature is that because
the employee already works for the organization, his or her talents can be very
easily understood. Further, it will also help the organization to bring down the
recruitment expenses. Another added advantage of internal recruitment is that it
will boost up the performance levels of other employees, as they can also expect
rewards for quality performances. (Mathis and Jackson, 2010)



3.4.3 Drawbacks of the internal recruitment:

In some cases internal recruitments can pave way for internal conflicts, as those
who are not benefited will have grudge on the employees who got the benefit. This
feeling of resentment can cause rift and rivalry between employees. Another
disadvantage is that the process of internal recruitment will reduce the pool of
skilled workers (Armstrong 2008).

3.4.4 External Recruitment:

This process is carried out when there is no sufficient level of qualified workers
within the organization to fill a specific position. Another instance when external
recruitment will become necessary is during the time of initial staff entry (James,
2007).

3.4.5 Benefits of external recruitment:

When an organization get new workforce, it is also getting the benefits of novel
concepts and approaches; in a way, it is extremely cheaper than giving the necessary
training to the existing employees (James, 2007).

3.4.6 Drawbacks of external recruitment:

The foremost drawback is that the existing employees will feel disheartened.
Another drawback is that a new worker will take much more time to learn and act
according to the company rules and regulations. There is also yet another significant
problem; the recruited employee or employees will not be fit for the job (Armstrong,
2008; James, 2007).

3.5 Recruitments at Wipro

Wipro considering their requirements adopts efficient recruitment procedure. Both
internal and external along with direct and indirect recruitment procedure is
followed in Wipro. After identifying the requirements of human resource Wipro
conduct job analysis, job description and job specification procedure. Internal


recruitment make sure that employees are motivated enough to get promotion their
career. Considering the employee performance internal recruitment is carried out in
Wipro. During times of necessity Wipro scan their database for required skilled
person or else publish vacancy in their intranet system for some weeks. They also
conduct campus recruitment and recruitment through agencies. Data bank and
casual applicants are also considered (Careers, 2012).

3.5 Selection:

After the primary phases of the selection procedures, comes the important phase,
and that is the selection of the employees. (Dennis, 2007) points out that the process
of selection can be termed as the way an organization chooses its employees from
the pool of applicants who has got the desired qualifications, talents and abilities for
fulfilling its organizational goals. The process of selection determines whether a
particular employee is truly fit to work for that organization. For carrying out this
effectually, the job analysis should be done properly, which means that the need
and specifications of the needed employee should be clearly worked-out. The
conditions which the company expects from the employee, including the physical,
mental and his or her social backgrounds etc. should be well defined. If any of these
specific conditions are not clearly met with, then the whole effort of selection
processes will be futile and wont yield the desired results (Dennis, 2007) .
.

3.5.1 The importance of selection:

According to Armstrong (2008) for making the selection process triumphant, there
are some basic needs which should be strictly followed:
There should be a proper authority or a supreme power to supervise the
selection process.
There should be some specific benchmark examples of employees, with
whom the potential employee can be tallied.
A thorough depiction of the particular job should be informed through
advertisements.
It should be taken care to attract a sufficient number of candidates, so that
the best ones can be selected.

Basically all types of selection procedures comprises of certain set conditions like:


Primary vetting.
Finishing application formalities.
Diverse types of examinations and checking.
Personal interview.
Milieu checking.
Proffer provisional job.
Bodily checking (Medical fitness).
Proffer permanent job.

Hence a selection process involves diverse tasks like job analysis and the
connected HR planning and implementation. In fact, HR planning and
implementation are the extremely significant factors of the selection process.
Devoid of these two fundamentally significant factors, all recruitment processes will
be extremely dormant (Berger, 2009) .

3.6 Selection process in Wipro

Selection process in Wipro is a 3 round procedure. It involve written test, technical
interview along with HR interview.

i) Written test:
It is conducted as three sections and duration of this test is one hour. Verbal,
Technical and General Aptitude are the three sections under written test. The
written test is now online.

Verbal section: It is simple and the questions will be like formation of sentences,
antonyms, synonyms, questions from setting sentences that are in jumbled form.

Technical section: The basic programming things like C, Computer Networks,
Operating Systems etc will be asked. For the candidates having Computer Science
knowledge this step will be easier. Whereas other candidates will have to prepare
well for this step.

General Aptitude: From aptitude sections such as Speed, Time and Work, Age
problems etc. questions will be asked.



Once written test is completed, sometimes candidates may be asked to prepare an

essay on any given subject and the time given will be 10 minutes.


ii)Technical Interview

Questions may be asked from candidates' academic background of study. For
example, the candidate may required to answer the seven network layers along with
their functions. In technical interview round, the technical skill described in the
resume is checked and here the academic project of the candidate is also focused.


iii) HR Interview

Usually it will be having simple format like asking to describe about ones self, their
strength, weaknesses, hobbies etc. In HR round, main focus is upon attitude,
behavior and communication skill of the candidate.

Considering the requirements, the decision to recruit is taken in Wipro. If less
number of employee is needed and skill set is easily available then they look upon
their database. Else if more number of employees are required or skill set is not
available then advertisements in newspaper is given.

Wipro then consider the experience and skill of the applicants looking upon their
resumes. After that they shortlist the applicants. Then those who are shortlisted are
invited to carry on with further procedures such as Aptitude Test, Interview, Group
Discussion etc. The recruitment procedure of Wipro is very rigorous as the company
want to make sure that the best talent is hired.

The qualification required for the applicant depends upon the job for which they are
applying. Along with educational qualification the company want employees to have
the capability, integrity and skill to run the company in future.

Wipro mainly concentrate upon internal progress. So they want employees who are
stable and thrilled to establish and develop a career with Wipro. Wipro want
employees to direct the company towards a new perspective (Careers, 2012;
Technology Evaluation, 2012).



3.7 Retention

This is another vital feature of typical HR department functioning methods,
subsequent to the initial job analysis and recruitment processes. When an
employee joins the organization, it is the duty of the HR department to give the
needed boost to the morale of the selected employee, so that he or she will stay with
the company for longer periods. In an organizational perspective, retention is the
way of inducing the selected employees for staying with the company (Wilson,
2005). The HR department can attain this objective in diverse ways. Salary increase
is certainly a definite way, but only to a certain limit, because other companies may
offer much larger pay packets, and so very wisely it can by said that salary is just an
exit aspect, rather than a stay aspect. Each establishment must define and draft its
own organizational retention policies, which will stay as a guiding factor for its HR
department to function effectively. It is the prime and crucial duty of the HR
department to device and put into practice diverse tactics, of course in accordance
with the company objectives, for retaining the selected employees for longer
periods with the company. Even though all establishments vary in their
organizational behaviour and structure, in general, all of them wish to get the
services of highly talented and dedicated workforce; all companies will wish to have
the appropriate workforce for the carrying out the appropriate pre-defined tasks,
and at appropriate times (Dennis, 2007). They will also wish to retain the best
employees for longer periods, because it will gain them the competitive edge. It is
the fundamental duty of the HR department to achieve this desired situation, so that
the overall company objectives are met convincingly and effectively. It can be seen
that the diverse processes like recruitment, selection and retention are
extremely significant as far as human resource management is concerned; the only
thing, which the concerned HR personnel will have to take care is that these
functions have to be devised and performed within the limits and backgrounds of
the other connected HR functions like training, developing and succession
planning (Mathis and Jackson, 2010).

3.8 Employee Retention strategies at Wipro

It is obvious that employee retention is considered as the second highest human
resource challenges in order for meeting the business demands critically (Dennis,
2007). Pay and benefits, training and development, work environment and job
satisfaction and the combination of five strategies is used by Wipro to retain


talented employees in the organization. Wipro continuously innovate and invent

new ways for retaining talented employees that changes the face of talent
management in India. Values, culture, freedom and autonomy, exciting challenges
and opportunities, career development are the vital retention tool of Wipro The
following are the talent retention strategies achieved by Wipro (Naukri Hub, 2012).

Pay and benefits

In the employee retention process compensation forms the largest part.
Compensation comprised of wages, salary bonuses, stock options, vacations etc. The
employee benefits includes retirement plans, life insurance, disability insurance etc
(Berger, 2009). As Wipro is service based company the success relied in its people,
therefore, Wipro includes higher variable pay component in their compensation
structure. In order to increase the employee satisfaction Wipro has implemented
performance related pay and the benefit is given to the employees. Wipro did adopt
a flexible pay system where all the staffs in the managerial level can design their
own package on the basis of their personal needs like car, furniture etc. Using
performance pay system , the employees are motivated work at their best in Wipro
(Live Mint, 2012).

Career Development

It can be defined as the way of success through which employees in the organization
get new challenges to face at every regular interval (Dennis,, 2007). As such, Wipro
makes available new challenges, new activities, and new responsibilities for the
employees to handle and significantly new process to learn. In the hierarchy system
of Wipro promotion is the advancement of employee position. Wipro make sure that
employees are capable to handle the position and responsibilities by screening the
interviews and tests, providing them training and development on the job. In Wipro
employees are promoted based on merit and seniority (Live Mint, 2012).

Training and Development

In Wipro, training and development is given paramount significance. In order to
build competency capital within Wipro in cutting edge technologies, domain and
functional area, about 4% of annual revenue of Wipro is invested in the training and
development. Moreover, Wipro, focus on giving adequate learning interventions to
associates with the capabilities of being leader in the organization. In addition


Wipro made available art training facilities in its all delivery centres. Wipro carry
out a well-structured induction program for the ones who have only less that one
years of experience (Live Mint, 2012).

Work environment

Wipro has healthy corporate culture of caring for the workers. Moreover, Wipro also
have an open door policy where employees are able to approach the top
management with work related issues. The feedback system also plays major roles
in building positive work culture at Wipro. This feedback system provides a channel
through which the issues and complaints can be taken into consideration by top-
level management and also employee can update middle level management about
the market conditions through the feedback system (Careers, 2012).

Through this outstanding retention strategies Wipro retain its employees in the
very competitive information technology sector. Wipro often gives paramount
significance on its compensation package, training and development, career
development and working environment as part of employee retention strategies.

4. CONCLUSION

Human Resources are the term utilized for describing the people who involve in the
organizations work force. The HR functions in an organization are concerned with
employee enabling, employee development, and focusing on establishing the
relationship satisfying for both employees and management. There are several
activities performed by human resource management such as, human resource
workforce analysis and planning, recruitment, selection and retention of employees,
performance management, training and development, compensation and reward
management, employee motivation, employee relations etc. (Wilson, 2005).As far as
the todays business is concerned a significant focus on recruitment and retention is
very imperative. Because, organizations are aware that competitiveness is
formulated from talent and it pursues that recruitment, selection and retention can
be just not considered as the issues in human resources but it is vital part of
business strategy (Mathis and Jackson, 2010). Today human capital management
lies along with business strategy, thus it can be ascertained by the organization that,
they have got the right people at the right time and at the right place (Dennis, 2007).



This study critically review the existing employee recruitment, selection and
retention strategies pursued by Wipro. This study also critically reviewed the
relevant literature with regards to recruitment, retention and selection strategies.
The achievements of objectives are described below.

Objective -1: To critically review the recruitment, selection and retention
strategies at Wipro.

It has been found that considering the recruitment process in Wipro, after
identifying the requirements of human resource Wipro conduct job analysis, job
description and job specification procedure. Internal recruitment make sure that
employees are motivated enough to get promotion their career. Considering the
employee performance internal recruitment is carried out in Wipro

In selection strategy of Wipro, it significantly involves three round procedures such
as written test, technical interview along with HR interview. Verbal, Technical and
General Aptitude are the three sections under written test. In technical interview
round, the technical skill described in the resume is checked and here the academic
project of the candidate is also focused. Whereas the HR interview has simple
format like asking to describe about ones self, their strength, weaknesses, hobbies
etc. In HR round, main focus is upon attitude, behavior and communication skill of
the candidate. Wipro then consider the experience and skill of the applicants looking
upon their resumes. After that they shortlist the applicants. Then those who are
shortlisted are invited to carry on with further procedures such as Aptitude Test,
Interview, Group Discussion etc. The recruitment procedure of Wipro is very
rigorous as the company want to make sure that the best talent is hired.

Meanwhile it has been identified in this study that, compensation and benefits,
employee rewards, work environment, career development and training and
development are the strategies pursued as part of employee retention.

Objective 2: To review the relevant literature related to, recruitment,
selection and retention

This study has critically reviewed the relevant literature related to recruitment,
selection and retention strategies. Recruitment is a main HR process. Once the task
of analyzing the job is over, the next stage is recruitment. As per the opinion of Noe
et al (2006), recruitment is the method of attracting and selecting new employees.


Whereas Holbeche (2008) points out that the process of selection can be termed as
the way an organization chooses its employees from the pool of applicants who has
got the desired qualifications, talents and abilities for fulfilling its organizational
goals. Retention is another vital feature of typical HR department functioning
methods, subsequent to the initial job analysis and recruitment processes. When
an employee joins the organization, it is the duty of the HR department to give the
needed boost to the morale of the selected employee, so that he or she will stay with
the company for longer periods. In an organizational perspective, retention is the
way of inducing the selected employees for staying with the company.

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Naukri Hub (2012) Employee Retention in TCS and Wipro
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