Private sector salaries for Govt employees?

BONANZA FOR BABUS: CNN-IBN panel debates on 'internal brain drain' and why Govt loses out on talent.

          

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Talent Retention

Does the government reward talent?

Rajiv, who has worked with the government for five years, answered saying that adequate rewards alone aren’t enough to retain talent. “Government’s working environment actually encourages mediocrity. The fact is you are made to be a file pusher. It’s not the money. The fact is that you are an ordinary bureaucrat and your hands are very tied,” he said.

Subramaniam cited politics as another reason as to why the right kind of talent does not get attracted towards public sector jobs anymore. “The kind of politics that we have here, people are not allowed to function,” Subramaniam argued.

Rajiv added that salary is the necessary but not the sufficient condition. “If you do not pay them enough, then you will not get the right talent but then you have to do much more for the talent to flower,” he explained.

The Real Recommendations

Pay commissions after pay commissions recommend hikes, slashing of government jobs, reducing pay scales, and doing away with vacant posts. Is the government just taking the hikes and ignoring the politically uncomfortable parts?

“Yes and that is why the talent is actually fleeing the government,” Hitesh replied, but at the same time added that if the government is the worst possible place top work, then how can you get people to work in the worst possible place by paying them the worst possible salary?

Subramaniam, however, contested Hitesh’s argument saying, “In general there are good working conditions, they have housing, good quality education and Rs 90000 a month is not chicken feed.”

But Hitesh pointed out that that may be true for people who joined the government job 20 years ago, but not who are fairly new in comparison.

The show concluded with everyone agreeing that even though money is important, it is not the only reason that makes people want to join government jobs. If government wants talent to come to it, then it has the job quality and also take the pay commission’s other recommendations, which is downsizing or right sizing, and productivity-related increments, into consideration.

Final results

Sixth pay commission: Should government employees receive the same salary as private sector employees ?

Yes: 67 per cent

No: 33 per cent