We had a talent acquisition and retention problem. Here’s how we solved it:

Our firm hires new recruits, almost straight out of college. Recruits enter knowing very little. But so far as they are concerned, they have started “working” and ought to be paid wages - as they should. In reality, they are an expense to the firm, or a capitalised expense, to adopt the accounting vernacular. A few are keen learners, most are average, but some are bludgers. The bludgers are the most expensive: because they learn neither for the firm, nor themselves. They can never be put on production jobs. As soon as identified, this class of persons are redeployed to other avenues commensurate with their abilities and talents. In this case, the firm bears the full loss: time, money, resources with no benefit to anyone.

Now for those who learn well and at a mediocre rate: both are eminently usable, but two years are wanting before their usefulness may be realised. Thereafter, it may take 2 more before they yield profits. But here lies the problem: these people can up and leave! Some might leave for a 10% increment. Other firms hire them, knowing that the same investment need not be made. In effect, we till, manure, prune, weed, and harvest - but someone else reaps the reward. In this case, the firm bear the entire loss, but someone else benefits: both the former employee and their newly-wed firm.

It is the height of perversion for someone to be paid wages, in order to learn, and to then leave when they feel like it. Even worse is to be paid to stay at home and bludge. I think it behooves every employee to stay at their current workplace, at least until they have paid off their employer, and to not seek greener pastures until that’s done. But that’s not how things work in the world, least of all in India. In that country, piracy is rampant, lying and fraud are national past-times, and a knack for bribery and corruption will render you eligible for high office. Students pay universities to learn, not the other way around. But we’re doing everything entirely opposite.

We recently lost a recruit - who left for better pastures. I wish him well, and am glad he found a nice role. But we cannot afford to be a free university that gives out scholarships with nice stipends for free. I am determined to put a stop to this.

The solution: to become a training institution ourselves. If our knowledge and skills are so valuable, then surely students will be willing to pay for it? I decided to commoditise our entire training process.

Here’s how it works:

Recruits will now be paying the firm for training, not the other way around. They can undertake it at their leisure. Should they slack off - they will bear the loss, not the firm. In this case, students have every incentive to learn (although, as can amply be demonstrated in colleges around the world - students are sometimes happy to pay tuition fees and to then sit around on TikTok).

From the firm’s point of view, capitalized expenses turn into immediate revenues and profits. Lastly, should students prove to be efficient learners: they can be employed with little investment. And should they wish to go elsewhere, they may go, happily. This shift in policy is progressing, and is imminent. We will soon produce high quality training materials, and sell them to all who want to learn.