Demand for IT professionals has at least doubled in the last 14 months as most global enterprises are busy expediting digitisation and automation of their businesses, reported the Indian Staffing Federation (ISF), an apex body of temporary workers industry in the country.

“World of work is digital. Thus the demand for techies this year is at least double of what we have witnessed in pre Covid times. The majority of global organisations are accelerating digital transformation due to Covid and this momentum of transition will continue to remain even after the pandemic,'' observed Suchita Dutta, Executive Director at ISF. There is a sudden surge in demand for digital skills (esp cially for talent around Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Cloud Computing, Information Security and Blockchain), and as a result, temp role hiring for freshers and others too has seen a rise in calendar 2021, confirmed the apex body.

Hiring of temps

Quoting a recent report, ISF said the expectations to enlist freshers among organisations had increased from 6% in 2020 to 15% in 2021. Also, the tech sector has been the top recruiter for freshers at 24% when telecom and e-commerce segments hired 21% and 19% freshers, respectively.

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However, the tech industry's biggest challenge would be talent sourcing and retention (now with job environment improving and voluntary employee attrition is on the rise) of skilled resources and this scenario has resulted in increased demand for temp staffing, including that of freshers. Most of these freshers are hired from across tier 1, 2 and 3 universities and colleges and trained on digital skills before being deployed on various projects.

“Overall the industry is gearing up to match the needs and increase the talent supply by upgrading HR processes, adding more training units and also by upping the number of their temp hires,'' Dutta added.

There was a tangible shift towards immediate hires in temp roles among enterprises as the supply side is already under pressure, she further noted

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