Attrition prompts ad agencies to turn focus to talent retention

One of the biggest challenges that Indian advertising business faces today is the high rate of attrition. RK Swamy BBDO plans to incentivise its employees by providing them a stake in terms of profit-sharing and long-term benefits. “This plan should be in place shortly. In a talent-based service industry, cost of talent is constantly on the increase. We strive to keep our rates remunerative,’’ said Srinivasan Swamy, CMD of RK Swamy BBDO.

The R26,000-crore Indian advertising industry has witnessed a lot of churn at both senior and junior levels in the last two years. Rohit Ohri, partner, JWT India, left the agency to become CEO of Dentsu India. While Bobby Pawar exited Mudra Group to become chief creative officer at JWT, Tarun Singh Chauhan left Lowe Lintas to join JWT India.

In the media buying and planning space, Punitha Arumugam, CEO of Madison Media, left Madison to join Google last year. Very recently, CVL Srinivas, chairman of  Starcom Media Vest Group, India, quit the agency to become CEO of GroupM South Asia.

Ad major Draftfcb Ulka is handling the issue by growing its own talent through Star One Trainee Programme, at entry level.

“Further, we keep this talent well trained by putting them through programmes like the Leadership Grid WorkShop, BrandWealth Seminar, Organisational Health Survey,  empowerment programmes and annual performance reviews,” said M Parameswaran, CEO

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