High-paying jobs, minimal responsibilities and the urge to splurge have led many young professionals to fall prey to consumerism. All this heavy spending is alien to the concept of financial security. Concerned by this, IT and ITeS companies are now providing financial counselling and discipline programmes to their workforce to help young staff manage their expenditure wisely.
“Many young people today start at handsome salaries and have fewer responsibilities. There’s a genuine need to come up with structured initiatives to advise employees on managing their money,” says Wipro’s head of compensation and benefits, Samir Gadgil. Wipro, for instance, has floated a financial-planning portal for employees called ‘Arthashastra’.
It has partnered with various financial service providers who act as advisors and educate staff about personal loans and minimising the burden of EMI payments.
“About 25 per cent of our recruits are fresh graduates, so to ensure that they don’t fall prey to consumerism we came up with these initiatives. Around 8-10 per cent of employees seek advice and log on to the website every month,” says Samir.
Wipro isn’t the only company doing this. The Indian IT and ITeS industry may be branching into smaller towns in search of talent and low-rental locations, but it leaves an indelible mark — in terms of aspirations and dreams of upward mobility — on young, mostly middle-class, recruits.
Speaking about one such initiative is Kalyan Kar, managing director of Acclaris. He says, “We have come across a lot of professionals who were unable to sustain EMIs as a result of their extravagant habits. So we decided to educate them about financial maturity through programmes like internal mentoring and we even tied up with financial services companies to conduct special sessions for them. Instead of telling them what they shouldn’t do, we subtly wanted to direct them towards what they should do for a secure future.”
As a result of these initiatives, many young professionals are moving towards responsible spending. For instance, Karthik K., 23, who works with a leading automobile company, attended a counselling session on the advice of his team leader. “When I got a job, I thought I could now easily splurge on clothes, watches and gadgets like my other well-to-do friends. But the counselling session I attended last week made me realise the importance of saving,” says Karthik, who has now set himself a goal — to buy his own flat in the next two years!