The Hindu Business Line : TeamLease plans to hire 80,000 people

Chennai, July 27 Staffing solutions provider TeamLease plans to hire about 80,000 people over the next three months. Of this, about 50,000 are likely to be banking and financial services professionals, the rest being engineering (IT and non-IT) professionals, according to Mr Deep Mukherjee, Vice-President, TeamLease. Currently, the company has about 75,000 employees in 23 offices across 19 cities.

TeamLease hires people with varied skill sets and deploys them as temporary staff across all sectors, including public sector enterprises. It has reach in 464 towns and cities.

Unlike a recruitment contractor, TeamLease does not merely get a job for a candidate. It also generates his pay roll, negotiates salary components (including provident fund and other benefits extended to permanent employees) and handles legal compliance issues while the candidate works for a company on temporary basis.

“The demand for more workers is no longer fuelled by labour arbitrage. Companies today want labour liquidity (flexibility of headcount),” Mr Mukherjee told Business line on a recent talent-spotting visit to Chennai.

TeamLease has a database of employees ranging from entry-level students to CEOs. They are assigned to work on projects lasting 6 months to a year in an industry that would best utilise their skills. Once a project is over, TeamLease puts the candidate on to his next project. The maximum time one may be unemployed is about a month, he said.

Developing new skills

“Many Indian companies are now open to the idea of employing temporary workers with specialised skills for high-end work. There is a mindset change among students too as they see our business model as an opportunity for developing new skills while working on different jobs. It also helps them decide on a permanent job,” he said. Typically, freshers constitute between 60 per cent and 70 per cent of TeamLease’s hiring.

TeamLease is focusing on building an employee database in Tier-II and tier-II cities, as Mr Mukherjee believes that is where jobs of the future will be created. The global market for temporary staffing is around $200 billion, however India-specific figures are not known.