Social media is fast emerging as a major sourcing channel for human resource personnel with head-hunters and recruitment agents scouring networks such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook for prospective candidates.
India has 243.2 million internet users, of whom 106 million are active social media users. Though the degree of recruitment through social networks in India is relatively small compared with developed markets where more than 90 per cent recruiters use social media as a major tool, the tide appears to be turning.
Talent poolRecruitment consultancies are under pressure to evolve their talent-hunting capabilities, says an official at PeopleStrong HR Services, a recruitment specialist. Given social media’s numerous benefits and ease of usage, there would be an increased tilt towards using these channels this year, he said.
A recent Monster Employment Index showed robust annual growth in 2014 in the online employment sector.
The positive year-on-year growth signifies that 2015 is expected to be a better year for job seekers and recruiters, the report noted.
The index showed that jobs related to production and manufacturing, home appliances, travel and tourism, logistics, banks and financial institutions saw a robust 35 per cent annual growth.
With the Government focussed on making India job-ready, the recruitment industry is expected to do better in 2015, says Sanjay Modi, Managing Director, Monster.com.
Even as more HR personnel are to tap social media, organisations are keen to build their workforce given the changing business paradigm.
Leadership pipeline“One of the most important worries on the minds of top CEOs is with respect to talent and a leadership pipeline.
Apart from ensuring true employee engagement, companies should craft unique offerings and build the right culture,” says Rajeshwar Tripathi, Chief People Officer, Automotive and Farm Equipment Sectors, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M).
Career development is an important investment at M&M. Tripathi said the company is in the process of launching an internal career marketplace to look at career development of all its employees.
“This not only drives engagement and motivation, but also builds a robust internal talent pipeline.”
M&M has also rolled out unique career building initiatives such as MPower, which is an online career rotation and management tool that allows an employee to chart out his or her dream path.
The tool uses a complex algorithm to find out the next three possible roles, both within and outside the current function, and highlight the skill gaps and the recourse for the same. However, not all companies might be doing enough to retain, re-skill and train their employees.
A recent survey on learning and development by The Association for Talent Development, in collaboration with Harvard Business Publishing, has noted that the average amount spent per employee on training and development has reduced from ₹19,471 in 2012, to ₹13,767 in 2014.
The average number of learning hours used per employee in 2013 was 31, down from 2012 when it was 50.
The survey has noted that these days, companies are looking at quick techniques to solve their assumed unique problems.