A number of people whom I’ve spoken to in the Digital Media industry over the past week have mentioned the kind of churn that is currently taking place: a large number of people are moving, some at salaries of 2x to 2.5x. There are those who’ve received a raise of 2x to 2.5x, perhaps to retain them. While we report mostly top management changes, the churn in the middle level appears to be far greater. The old, everlasting, joke is that almost everyone in the online industry is ex-Indiatimes.

I’d been told of an impending churn in one regular media cos because of discontent, but that too was put down to “We’re so used to moving from one newspaper to another for pay hikes now, that there’s no real loyalty left.” At the ContentSutra Mumbai Meetup, when Netra of Pinstorm mentioned a digital marketing institute they’ve set up with the IAMAI, the MD of one of the companies present said “When your first batch graduates, please let me know. I’ll have my HR manager get in touch with you.”

Some of these issues - of preventing churn, training, paucity of digital marketing execs, spiraling compensation costs and loyalty - I thought would be taken up in the issue of the IAMAI focusing on HR in the digital media business. Unfortunately not, but interesting nevertheless:

Ashish Mehrotra, VP (Corporate Development) for Rediff believes that it’s difficult to attract new talent if there is too much conformity. However, he believes that the demand for employees in other sectors like finance is far greater. In the digital business, as systems grow bigger and more complex, the need for “highly skilled super specialized techies, product developers and designers” is going to grow. He mentions a few types of people for whom this industry is a No-No...including “That project you’ve been working on every day for two months might never even get launched. Enjoy what you’re doing right now. Too bad, the company’s business model just changed, and it is time to do something else.” The complete list here.

Rajendra Mehta, VP & Head HR for Times Internet says that the market is far too competitive, and the talent pool is too small. More and more people are taking to entrepreneurship, and it’s a challenge to maintain and nurture skill-sets and grow a talent pool. A typical Internet company operates in a 24x7-work environment, so the work environment needs to create bonhomie.