The Hindu Business Line : Just-in-time hiring is the trend

FOUR years after the Y2K boom, the hiring axis in the IT sector is in an upward trend, again. And headhunters are oiling up their machinery for the race.

"It's not like last year where you had a huge talent pool. Resumes have started disappearing in 20 days from our desks," according to Mr Gautam Sinha, CEO, TVA Infotech, a Bangalore-based recruitment agency.

"And companies are treading with caution too,' says Mr Kris Lakshmikanth, CEO and Managing Director, Headhunters, a Bangalore-based recruitment firm. This time round, they are not letting go of values such as economy and prudence. For instance, JIT (Just In Time) recruitment, an outcome of the IT bust, is still the norm in the recruitment exercise in the industry. According to Mr Sinha, "The market is becoming hot and companies do not want to hire for a bench." Mr Lakshmikanth explains two facets of JIT: "One is the bulk recruitment where 50-100 people are recruited at one go. And the lead time given for headhunters is not more than 25-30 days." The second is recruitment of specialists such as Vision Plus, Java, Mainframe, etc.

While bulk recruitment is targeted at the 2-7 years experience category, niche recruitment is at a higher level. "In fact, some of them are hired on contract for a short term but at a high price," says Mr N Muralidharan, Managing Director and Vice-President, Jobstreet.com. "But 80 per cent of JIT recruitment is for the 2-6 years experience category," says Mr Sinha.

"And headhunters have to be really swift to cater to this need-based recruitment," explains Mr Sinha, "The database has to be strong, the ads have to be released on time and resumes screened in a jiffy."

Most headhunters ensure that resumes do not sit with them for more than two weeks. Otherwise, they lose out on a candidate. Mr Lakshmikanth says sometimes he has to screen about 2,50,000 resumes to get 50 right ones. "Generally, headhunters identify and map target companies where prospective employees can be found. The minute they hear of a project coming up, they are in action."