The Hindu Business Line : `Align the education system with business verticals'

Companies must provide opportunities for personal and professional development of employees - in-house or offsite - if they have to battle attrition. Alongside, they must build a network of open communication so that employees interact with each other, says Achal Khanna, Country General Manager of Kelly Services India.

Speaking to Business Line on a range of issues concerning the challenge of retaining talent, she says that companies must engage employees with company goals, hearing them and sharing with them.

Kelly Services India is part of Kelly Services Inc, a $5-billion Fortune 500 company.

It provides innovative staffing solutions to leading global and Indian organisations, such as temporary staffing services, staff leasing, outsourcing and full-time placement.

As the competition for talent intensifies, so does the incidence of poaching. "Poaching is a bad practice to start, which hiring managers usually engage in because of high pressure to close positions," says Khanna.

According to her, it is the `plug-out and plug-in' concept that forces them to poach ... "the need to get someone on board quickly without spending much time in training him or her."

The role of HR has transformed over the years, going beyond recruitment to employee engagement, development, motivation and training. This has led to fresh challenges, especially when it comes to managing the expectations of many people in industries such as manufacturing.

"IT, manufacturing and pharma together employ a lot of people in India. Though the workforce in IT and pharma is generally very educated, this is not the case with manufacturing. Weaving them with the company and making them feel connected is a real challenge."

According to her, BPO (business process outsourcing) staffing is getting organised now.

"Top-level BPOs these days only hire people who are good in speaking English and have good communication skills. Their hiring quality standards have really gone up. Also, they are now using different retention strategies to curb attrition."

What best practices does a Fortune 500 company like Kelly bring to the industry?

"Our key strength is recruitment process outsourcing (RPO). We use quality tools to measure interview-to-offer and offer-to-joining ratios. Besides, we have in-house training programmes to help candidates with interview techniques. We also enhance their skills in various verticals and computer competencies."

compensation packages

Kelly also offers advice on structuring of compensation packages.

"We guide employers in devising the right compensation structure keeping in mind the market trends and candidates' expectations. We also guide the candidates to be realistic in their demands."

Besides, the company ensures that fake applications are eliminated by making thorough reference checks and through personal interactions.

Job-hopping is another area of concern for industry.

"People are changing domains without even thinking of the repercussions," Khanna said.

"Organisations are looking for people with experience from the same industry so that they can reduce cost and time investments and get the person to deliver from day one," she says

Khanna strongly believes that improving the education system is mandatory to ensuring employability.

"There is a shortage of good people in each segment. But there are lot of generalists passing out of college, who are unemployed due to a gap in the need and availability of skills. We really need to align our education system with the various business verticals opening up in India."

According to her, the immediate skill gap is present in infrastructure and retail.

"These segments are growing at a fast pace. There is a lot of backward integration happening, where big retail giants are collaborating with universities for changes in the curriculum to cover the gaps."

Sought after sectors

Some jobs are seen as hot, while some are not.

Khanna agrees, stating that jobs in IT that have requirements on specific technologies _ like Web 2.0, SAP _ are really hot. "The energy, power and construction sectors are getting hot, as are retail, real estate marketing, investment banking and portfolio management."

But jobs in regular IT software development, generic manufacturing and sales and entry-level BPO voice-based domain are some "evergreen jobs that are not sought after."

The education system often gets blamed for churning out unemployable candidates year after year.

"Right now, though there is no dearth of opportunities; of course, the quality of education has taken a beating due to the mushrooming of educational institutions."

This is reflected in the salaries and the type of jobs that some people get despite having the same level of education as others.

Ms Khanna adds that the employability rate can be increased by introducing a grading system for institutions based on various parameters.

"The hype and media focus on a few top institutes should also be reduced. There are some very good institutes that get step-motherly treatment because they are not media favourites."

Additionally, she says, labour and employment laws need to be amended "keeping in view the change in the economic situation in the country."

In an era awash with opportunities and facilities, fresh graduates are also taking the entrepreneurial plunge.

"There is a visible trend towards self-employment. Young minds are not afraid of taking risks. They more empowered now then earlier to take calculative risks and move towards self-employment."

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