BENGALURE: While 39 percent organisations lost top talent to start-ups in just the past 6 months, overall, 45 percent of companies surveyed agreed that they had lost their choicest and top talent to start-ups in the past revealed a recent TimesJobs.com study.

Start-up Craze – The Entrepreneurial Rush

Many of the best and brightest of India Inc’s talent are bailing out of their high-paying, prestigious jobs with big corporates to join start-ups or set up their own business. The IT/Telecom sector has witnessed the maximum (40 percent ) talent movement to startups followed by ITeS, Retail and the Manufacturing & Engineering sectors.

The Game of Power

Freedom to innovate and positions/designations are pointed out as the key factors luring top talent to startups, by nearly 60 percent of the respondents to the TimesJobs.com survey.

The attraction of having a position of power and of being in a leadership role is the maximum at the middle level. 65 percent organisations said that maximum talent movement is at the middle level and 55 per cent of middle level managers are attracted by the designations offered, TimesJobs.com revealed. The experience range of these high-value job-hoppers lies between 5-10 years, said 48 percent of the survey. The fact that middle level employees are getting to exercise leadership positions at start-ups is the biggest factor driving them to leave reputed & established organisations.

“A major reason for this exodus of talent is that in a big company mid-managers can take almost 10-15 years to reach leadership positions, while start-ups offer them a head start at the power and opportunities that leadership provide at a much earlier stage in their careers.” says Vivek Madhukar, COO, TimesJobs.com

TimesJobs’ survey reveal Over 60 percent candidates with 2-5 years experience move to startups to explore their creative side and about 67 per cent of the candidates with 5-10 years experience join startups for better positions and designations.

Playing to their Strengths

“While money may not be the biggest attraction in start-up organisations, they are cashing in on the concept of the ‘new work world’, which offers freedom to innovate, flexibility and leadership positions to lure Gen Y workforce out of their big corporate jobs. The fact that Gen Y is restless and seeks instant gratification, interesting work and quick results – start-ups are the place where they are getting what they want.” explained Vivek Madhukar, COO, TimesJobs.com

According to Sunil Goel, MD GlobalHunt, “Startups have minimum liabilities and so they experiment and innovate with one specific area. Top talent have risk abilities and willingness to work all around the functions, hence they select to join the startups.” As far as designations are concerned, he added, that while in established companies there is a huge pool of people and so the hierarchy has to be maintained to make sure that new entrants are clear about their role, work areas and KRAs, in startups the resource pool is limited. It doesn't matter what designation it should be called.

Besides, professionals today have become more optimistic about the future of the country, its economy and the markets. Hence, they are no more risk-averse. Also, with many startup success stories doing the rounds and world-figures espousing the concept of entrepreneurship, the workforce is getting lured, highlighted Aditya Narayan Mishra, president Staffing, director Marketing, Randstad India.
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