FISH BONE Analysis: “An effective tool for identifying causes for employee attrition in

MNC’s located in Bangalore”

* Mr. Vinay Y Kenkere

**Mr. Shaikh Juned Saoud
* Lecturer, Acharya Institute of Graduate Studies, Bangalore-90, vinayyk@acharya.ac.in
**Lecturer, Acharya Institute of Graduate Studies, Bangalore-90, juned@acharya.ac.in

Abstract:

Fishbone diagrams are causal diagrams created by Kaoru Ishikawa (1968) that show the
causes of a specific event also known as Ishikawa diagrams, herringbone diagrams, cause-
and-effect diagrams. It is very useful in identifies many possible causes for an effect or
problem. It can be used to structure a brainstorming session. It provides a systematic way
of looking at effects and the causes that create negative effects on activity or process. The
design of the diagram looks much like the skeleton of a fish. Therefore, it is often referred
to as the fishbone diagram.
Employee attrition is a reduction in the number of employees through retirement,
resignation or death, also known as employee churn, employee turnover, or employee
defection, is an industrial term used to describe loss of employees or Man power.
Employers generally consider attrition a loss of valuable employees and talent.
This study has been undertaken to understand the Fishbone Analysis, its applications in
day to day activities and Employee attrition, its effect on organisation and usage of
Fishbone analysis in finding causes for reasons for employee attrition in IT companies
located in Bangalore.

1. Introduction

FISH-BONE ANALYSIS
Cause and Effect Analysis was devised by Professor Kaoru Ishikawa, a pioneer of quality
management, in the 1960s. The technique was then published in his 1990 book, "Introduction to
Quality Control."
The diagrams that we create with Cause and Effect Analysis are known as Ishikawa Diagrams or
Fishbone Diagrams since this diagram look like fish so it is known as fishbone analysis.
Cause and Effect Analysis was originally developed for manufacturing companies as a quality
control tool, but now we can use this toll in any stream of business, like Human Resource,
Finance, Marketing and so on.
We can use this tool for following purposes
  Discover the root cause of a problem.
 Uncover bottlenecks in your processes.
 Identify where and why a process isn't working.

How to create a fish diagram:

 Create a head, which tells the problem or issue to be studied. (Employee Attrition)
 Create a backbone for the fish (straight line which leads to the head).
 Identify at least four “causes” that contribute to the problem. Connect these four
causes (People, Management, Individual and Infrastructure) with arrows to the spine.
These will create the first bones of the fish.
 Come up with around each “cause” to document those things that contributed to the
cause.
 Continue breaking down each cause until the root causes have been identified.

EMPLOYEE ATTRITION

Employee attrition is the rate at which organizations and/or company's hiring and fire employees
to either represent their firm or leave their firms. It also referred to the employee turnover rate.

Employee attrition refers to the loss of employees through a number of circumstances, such as
resignation and retirement. The cause of attrition may be either voluntary or involuntary, though
employer-initiated events such as layoffs are not typically included in the definition. Each
industry has its own standards for acceptable attrition rates, and these rates can also differ
between skilled and unskilled positions. Due to the expenses associated with training new
employees, any type of employee attrition is typically seen to have a monetary cost. It is also
possible for a company to use employee attrition to its benefit in some circumstances, such as
relying on it to control labor costs without issuing mass layoffs.

There are many different ways for a company to lose employees, most of which are typically
taken into account to ensure that the organization is able to operate efficiently. Attrition refers to
the loss of employees due to reasons other than firing and other employer-initiated events. This
means that an employer has no direct control over how many personnel are lost to employee
attrition. Retirement is one major cause of employee attrition, and since people tend to retire
around a specific age this is a factor that can be accounted and planned for. Other causes of
employee attrition, such as personnel who quit due to prolonged illness, dissatisfaction with the
company, or other reasons, can be more difficult to estimate.
Effects of Employee Attrition

 Low Workplace Morale

 Deteriorating Product or Service Quality
 Reduction in Marketing Return on Investment
 Lack of Staff
 Expenses on recruitment and training

2. Research Design
Statement of Problem
“FISH BONE Analysis: “An effective tool for identifying causes for employee attrition in MNC’s
located in Bangalore”
Today organizations are facing a major problem of people leaving within the stipulated time due
to various reasons and this has created lot of inconvenience and jaggedness. This Paper is
carried out with a sole purpose to create a platform to know the reasons for employee attrition
by using Fish Bone Analysis and how to control this in the future run.

Objectives of the study

 To understand the concept of Fishbone analysis
 To know the causes and impact of for employee attrition
 To understand the benefits of Fishbone analysis to identify root causes for employee
attrition
 To suggest recommendations to avoid employee attrition in MNC’s

Scope of study
The study was undertaken to understand the concept of Fishbone analysis and its applicability in
HR department to identify the causes for employee attrition. Study was conducted in various
MNC’s (Infosys, Wipro, TCS and etc) located in Bangalore.

Methodology and procedure

Questionnaire method was adopted. The data was collected through primary and secondary tools
and was effectively evaluated. The primary data was collected through issue of questionnaire to
the respondents (IT Employees and employers) and secondary data from the websites of various
institutes, text books and various journals.
Sample Size:
Sample size is of 30. The entire sample size was used for processing data. Random sampling
technique was used.
Limitations of the study
 Limitation of time.
 Sample size was restricted to only 30 respondents.
 Only selected geographical area of Bangalore was considered for survey.
 The research findings are based on the opinion of respondents surveyed.

3. Findings
 The causes for employee attrition in MNC’s are People in organisation, Organisation
culture, Personal/individual, Infrastructure causes.
 In MNC’s employee attrition rate normally high in the Carrier beginning years of the
employees
 The level of stress is high in the IT and ITES sector compare to other sector.
 MNC’s are now days experiencing the problem with Gender, Language , Region
Biasness in the recent years
 Study also noted that Glass ceiling still exist in MNC’s
 Corporate culture including Shift rotation HR policies and other employment policies in
MNC’s are also primary and secondary causes for Employee attrition.
 Clashes between Office and Home and Home and Office may also lead to employee
attrition.
 4. Suggestions
 MNC’s can use fishbone analysis tool for identifying causes and sub-causes for employee
attrition.
 MNC’s must use proper questionnaire format to draw a Diagram.
 MNC’s should make necessary changes in policies according to Indian culture.
 Team leaders and Managers should adopt Democratic leadership styles so that it reduces
the attrition in People causes.
 BPO’s should stop HIRE and FIRE policy and need check the candidate s background in
case of experience.
 Organizations need to adopt proper performance appraisal system which is combination
of Competitiveness and experienced base.

5. Conclusion
Every MNC wanted to reduce the employee attrition rate of respective, but they fail to
reduce because of tolls they are using for identifying the reasons and the solutions they
are implementing. Here with they can use fishbone analysis to identify the causes and
effect of the employee attrition in a firm.

References
 http://www.ehow.com/info_8350972_meaning-employee-attrition.html#ixzz2I2PhzZHT
 http://www.asmeconferences.org/gemc10/may08AttritionFactorsandRetentionStrategies.
pdf
 http://labourbureau.nic.in/asi2K2-3%20S%20Contents.htm
 http://www.instabriefs.com/employee-hiring/employee-retention/employee-retention-
fast-facts.php