Hiring in India requires tailoring job descriptions to the local context. Using similar job descriptions from other countries can undermine hiring efforts in India. Terms like "equal opportunity employer", "diversity initiatives", and "work-life balance" do not resonate with Indian job seekers. Designations such as "Assistant Manager" may refer to a title rather than a managerial role. Job specifications also need to account for differences in terminology - for example, people with bachelor's degrees are commonly called "graduates" rather than "undergraduates" in India. To effectively hire candidates in India, job descriptions must be made specific to the local workforce.

1. Hiring in India
Frequently, I get emails from people in the US and Canada about how they can go about hiring people
in India. For whatever ends, hiring people in India is subject to a lot of half-truths and myths.
In this post we at the first pitfall of hiring in India.
Using same or similar job-descriptions when hiring in India
Having worked in three US firms that try to hire in India, it is amazing how small things like job
descriptions end up messing the chances of a firm to hire in India.
Details like “being an equal opportunity employer” makes no sense for the Indian job-seeker. That
holds true for terms like “Diversity and Inclusion initiatives” or “Work-life balance”.
Designations are often not in tune with what the market understands. For example “Assistant Manager”
is often a designation rather than a role. In US firms, being called a “Manager” means that one is
managing people. However, Indian job-seekers want a “manager” designation within 2 years of having
completed their MBA. Most of them do their MBA directly after their graduation or at the most with 2
years of work-experience. So if you are expecting fresh MBAs with an average age of 27-28 years then
you need to re-look at your job specifications.
“Under-graduate” as a term is fairly new to the Indian workforce. People with B.Sc/B.Com/BA/BE
degrees are called “graduates” and any masters degree or diploma is called a “post-graduate”
certification.

2. If you want to have effective people in the job in India then you have to start with making the job
descriptions context specific.
Best of luck!
Next post: Your branding in India counts more than your international branding as an employer.
About the author:
Gautam Ghosh is an India-based blogger and HR Consultant. He has worked in the IT and BPO
industry in India as a learning & development and HR professional. He has worked in Indian IT firms,
as well as US MNCs like Hewlett Packard, Dell and Deloitte Consulting. He blogs on Organizational
issues at http://gauteg.blogspot.com