To retain faculty, IITs offering jobs to their spouses

New Delhi: The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are finally experimenting with latest HR trends and strategies to attract and retain good faculty. One of the steps they have taken is to help their spouses find suitable jobs, according to their qualifications and the number of hours they can commit to work, inside and outside IIT campus.

For the purpose, IIT Kanpur has started a Spouse Employment Cell recently. They have already received about 30 CVs and are keeping a track of job openings suitable for faculty spouses. This Cell has also approached various companies and schools in the vicinity to look for more jobs that meet the expectations and requirements of spouses of IIT faculty.

Many IIT faculty members have spouses who are highly qualified and IITs do not want to let such readily available on-campus experience go waste. IIT Roorkee has hired some faculty spouses as research scientists and even faculty in the past six months. IIT Ropar also encourages the trend and has two to three couples teaching at the institute. IIT Patna that has four couples teaching at the institute agrees that the move prevents attrition.

IIT Guwahati director Gautam Biswas found it a good idea too and said he would love to appoint the spouse of his or her faculty member, if the person is well-qualified.

IIT Bombay and IIT Madras however deem this unnecessary for them as they are situated in big cities and the spouses of their faculty members can easily find local jobs.