New challenges demand new solutions. With wage bills of infotech sector going up sharply, Nasscom has begun looking for alternative, cost-effective sources of human resources and their management.

Its search is away from the top notch engineering and management colleges.

Nasscom calls this new category unconventional talent. For example, it feels the need to deploy the visually challenged for some BPO jobs and rural graduates in posts where high communication skills are not required.

Special focus

Not that IT firms are not tapping this segment. But Nasscom feels that recruitment and management of this newer category of employees need special focus.

Santanu Paul, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of TalentSprint, said the cost of talent acquisition had gone up significantly.

“With slowdown putting pressure on revenues, the IT industry has now realised how unsustainable the existing model of human resources is. We are seeing it dumping traditional models,” he told Business Line .

The new approach to HR also highlights the point that 60-70 per cent of graduates in the country come with “unconventional backgrounds”. But they are very talented in their own right.

“We need to develop multi-skilled and flexible workforce that can adapt to variance in industry demand. We should also discuss sustainable and effective use of ICT solutions to talent at the entry level,” Bidhan Kankate, a senior Nasscom executive, said.

Talks with companies

The association would have discussions with top IT and IT-enabled services companies on the issues that are relevant to develop and manage the unconventional talent.

The first such meeting would be held here on August 8.

The HR Forum, set up by the association, will hold meetings in various cities in association with TalentSprint, a skill development firm.

>kurmanath.kanchi@thehindu.co.in

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