The Hindu Business Line : ‘Hire like a homemaker’

News of layoffs abounds. Travel costs are being cut. The IT and BPO industries, being export driven, are probably feeling the pinch more than other sectors.

So, by inference, the recruitment firms that help these industries hire should also be hit, right? Here’s what Saundarya Rajesh of Avtar Career Creators has to say to eWorld.

What signs do you see in sectors such as IT services and BPO in terms of manpower requirement?

While the current economic smog has made it difficult for any prediction of talent strategy to hold true in a constantly changing environ, I would say that talent has become more important than ever before now. While most clients today say that they are only going in for replacement hiring, there has only been a lull — not a deepfreeze.

The talent supply chain manager has to deal with a quirky paradox — he/she has to pull all strings together tightly to maintain lower talent acquisition costs, yet work towards greater employee engagement than before! For the first part of this issue (talent acquisition), I would answer from the viewpoint of a homemaker in today’s scenario. Just because the economic situation is tense, one cannot stop consuming — but instead of buying a pair of top-end designer shoes for my teenager, I would go for the regular standard Bata variety (which is good value for money). Similarly, instead of branded breakfast muesli, I would go for partially home-made cereal. So, extending this analogy to talent consumption, I would say that companies would promote from within, use employee referrals to a large extent and hire only when absolutely necessary. Companies would probably also relax their ‘tiering’ structure and instead go for good quality profiles, even if they are not ‘branded’. Similarly, companies would not spread their requirements to a large number of recruiters, but shrink the list to only those who are both economical and result-oriented.

Looking at the second part of the question (employee engagement), it would seem odd and self-contradicting if the same companies which claimed to treat its people as top priority were to retrench them in a jiffy in a shaky economic scenario. These companies would really lose face not only with discerning career-seekers but also with the Search and Selection community, at a later date when they are in dire need of good resources. So, it remains to be seen how companies would handle this period.

In short, I would say the recruitment manager would want talent, at less expensive rates and through more reliable and result-oriented sources.

In the IT / ITES/ BPO sectors, over the past three months, the number of enquiries has gone down by at least 25 per cent. In terms of value of requirements, I see that figure closer to 30 per cent. Positions to be closed urgently are those at the middle level. At this level, companies require the support of consulting firms to identify the right talent. At the junior/entry level, companies can hire on their own (off-campus, referrals). In fact, this year, since many campus offers have been delayed (one IT company issued letters in April and at least 80 per cent of those letters have not been honoured yet — some students have just begun to receive call letters asking them to join), it should not be a problem for companies to attract such talent, which is there for the asking.

So what exactly has changed for a service provider like you?

We do a lot of work with companies across industries and I don’t see a great dip in the volume of hires by these companies — what is of concern is the payment period and terms.

For those of us who work with reputed organisations, it is predominantly a cash-flow issue, since, even if it is delayed, the payment reaches you eventually. But those working for lesser-known companies face problems of delayed payments. Companies are still hiring for business that has been signed on and acquired in end 2007-08 and early 2008-09. If the scenario improves and companies start pitching and winning accounts, hiring would again start by mid 2009-10.

Has the requirement from prospective employees changed? In terms of technologies required (we hear that Java and testing courses have seen a drop in enrolment at training institutes), the years of experience required, or even in terms of soft skills (has that gone up, as a way to filter entrants)?

From what we see, skill sets are not changing but methodology of hiring is definitely changing. If hiring managers were satisfied with 5-6 interviews before finalising a hire, now the number is up to 8-10.

What signs do you see in temporary hirings? We last heard that they were up... especially for those with 5-7 years of experience.

As the pioneer of Interim Women managerial talent, we find a distinct increase in enquiries for our flexi-time women managers across industries. These are women professionals with 4-10 years of work experience. They are sought after by companies across industries, for reasons of lower cost, better engagement and higher quality of output.

Have the profiles of companies sending you enquiries changed? For instance, would you see more enquiries from a mid-sized company or a startup profile now than from large companies?

No comments.

Any signs you see in the banking, retail and FMCG businesses?

Replacement hires are still happening. I doubt if there will be such a drop in attrition (the national percentage was at 8 per cent, I read somewhere...) to bring about a complete freeze to all hiring activity.

Related Stories:
Mid-tier IT firms hire ‘average’ numbers
No slowdown in attrition yet for IT sector

More Stories on : Interview | Human Resources | Outsourcing

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