The blue collar ‘fades away’ fast, say studies

Blue and grey collar workers have to be won over in the first three months; and organisations are increasingly alive to the need to chalk out strategies to retain them

Showrooms often advertise blue-collar job vacancies with prominently-hung boards. “Staff needed, full-time or part-time”. Blue-collar vacancies generally get filled quickly. And the positions are also deserted with equal speed.

Smitha Nair, a human-resource professional turned entrepreneur, notes on the scale of difficulty levels in personnel management, retaining blue-collar workers tends towards “very difficult”.

A report by The Udaiti Foundation and Quess Corp Limited found that initial three months of employment is critical to retention, as a substantial number of new associates “jump ship” in that period. The dropout rate among female associates is higher.

The report is based on an analysis of monthly Quess payroll data of over 15 lakh employees from 2020 to 2023.

Associates who stick to the job during the first three months tend to persist in the job for much longer — for a minimum of one year.

The percentage of those dropping out in the first month is higher in the low-earning category as compared to high-earning associates, signalling salary to be a significant factor contributing to dropout rates.

“Unlike white collar jobs, where attrition usually strikes after one year of employment, the ‘turnover rate’ for blue and grey collar staff is high during the first 90 days and we need to address it,” says M.P. Karthick, assistant vice president, Data and Applied Research, The Udaiti Foundation.