While jobs are aplenty, small and medium businesses often say they are unable to attract the top talent. And the job seeker, according to educational institutions, prefers to be placed in a big/renowned undertakings rather than taking offers from small and medium enterprises.
So, what should the SMEs do to attract top talent?
“SMEs must look at branding themselves and establish their presence on the Net to attract the right talent,” says T Muralidharan, Chairman, TMI Group.
A survey of engineering graduates in and around Hyderabad conducted by this talent acquisition and development group, revealed that over 40 per cent of job-seekers look up company Web sites for information about the job and potential employer. Close to 35 per cent of the respondents said they would undertake research on the company at various sites on the Net before deciding whether or not to pursue a job opportunity in the said company, ask acquaintances, go through social media pages and media reports.
“The types of information that engineering graduates seek to assess a job opportunity is diverse. While a majority of the respondents indicated that they would look for comprehensive information about the specific job role, an equal number of students said they would consider information about the company among the decisive factors.
The survey also revealed that 43 per cent of job seekers gave up a job opportunity when they found information about the company missing with recruiters. Half of them said they would not look to be placed in a company that had no Web site. Lack of presence in the social media was also considered another reason for discontinuing the pursuit of a job opportunity in a particular company.
Sharing her perspective on the findings, Srividya Viswanathan, Executive Vice-President, JobsDialog, a SME-targeted recruitment solution from the TMI Group, said over 90 per cent of the sites hosted by the SMEs are customer-centric. “There is hardly any information aimed at educating and attracting the job seeker. It is high time SMEs understood that employer branding is as important as product branding,” she said.
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