T jinsite anniversary_issue_2012

VOLUME-II | ISSUE 2
JANUARY ISSUE

H I R I N G & B E YO N D
www.research.timesjobs.com

2012 will be the year of…
On the commencement of New Year, TJinsite brings to you the projections for recruitment
industry in 2012 by Industry Leaders. Read on to know what the future holds for
recruitment sector…

Test for resilience of Indian Economy. Recruitment space will
witness focused effort, new approach to build talent pyramid
shifting away from cost optimisation to build niche-skill
inventory for the organisation.
Dr Pallab Bandyopadhyay, Director-Human Resources, Citrix

Reinvention. To make themselves more marketable in the
workplace employees need to learn new skills, multi-task and add
value to their employers. Employers will also have to make jobs
more challenging and streamline processes so that manpower
costs can be optimised.
Ruth Singh, Head-Human Resource, Emkay Global Financial Services

Opportunities in specific areas based on India’s growth sectors,
with focus on rural retail and e-business. Healthcare, Hospitality,
FMCG and Retail will be the key employment generators in the
Indian market.
Anuricha Chander, DGM-Human Resource, Technopak Advisors
Hiring
Challenges, but still India is not in a tight spot; however,
recession fears have not faded. We will continue to see some
improvements in the job market towards the second half of the
Outlook
year. Career/ job websites will provide mobile version benefiting
the prospective hires and Gen Y in particular.
Manmohan Bhutani, Vice President-People and Operations, Fiserv India
2012
Guarded Optimism. Learning from mistakes in 2008, few
companies will develop their talent pipeline by proactively hiring
before others as soon as they see the first signs of economic
recovery. Critical thinking and communication skills will emerge
as the most important skills in 2012.
Saurabh Singh, National Head, Pearson Clinical and Talent Assessment

Consolidation and re-invention. As the economy grows,
recruitment will continue to see the upward trend. Developing
different channels of identification of talent and matching
aspirations of candidates to requirements will be the key for the
recruitment industry.
Sunil Bhave, Vice President, Fujitsu Consulting India

Mobile Platform. By the end of next year, the mobile platform will
become the dominant communications and interaction platform.
Global economic issues will persist for years to come, but the
global war for talent will continue spiking in key regions and
industries.
Meenakshi Roy, Sr Vice President-Human Resources, Reliance Broadcast Network

VOLUME-II | ISSUE 2
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JANUARY ISSUE
HIRING & BEYOND www.research.timesjobs.com
VOLUME-II ISSUE 1, DECEMBER 2011

Key Trends for the Year 2012…
There is a huge skill drought in themselves, integrate the social hiring tools for various levels.
the country in several media into their recruitment This includes psychometric
industries and there are and screening processes to tests, communication &
possibilities that people will attract the right kind of talent. presentations skills and

U
switch industries in search of More prospective candidates leadership assessments.

sing Social better opportunities. These
moves will be result of
will leverage on social media as
the avenue to seek the right jobs.
Ramakrishnan Ramamurthy
President
Media consolidations and Raja Shanmugam Mytrah Energy India Limited, Hyderabad
effectively to opportunities rather than
monetary gains. Also, attrition
Chief People Officer
Happiest Minds Technologies
maximise return on rate is at its low currently with The key trend, undoubtedly, will
hiring investment average attrition of 8-10% and
we believe that the trend will The trend will clearly be
be the use of social media
platform. Also various employer
will see growth continue. “cautious hiring” the companies branding forums will gain
through entire 2012 Ashish Arora
Founder & Managing Director-HR
are likely to follow rigorous
process of evaluating every
mindshare as companies are
getting acclimatised and
as will employee Anexi vacancy and the need to therefore embracing this new
referral programs. actually hire from outside. A
major impact could also be on
reality.

SMEs across all The last quarter of 2011 has recruiting fresh candidates from
Prashant Bhatnagar
Director-Hiring
industries will be been slightly tense and has kept
organisations on guard. In the
campuses and colleges. Having
learnt the lessons in the
Sapient India
major employment IT services space, there will be a previous slowdown, it is
generators in 2012. requirement of people who are
willing to multi-task and take up
unlikely that companies will
have a knee jerk reaction to
Talent would be scarce and the
focus would be for retaining
Shuchi Nijhawan additional responsibilities in recruitments in 2012. existing talent, whereas
Head-Global Human Resources terms of client deliverables. Sudakshina Bhattacharya recruiters would have to push
Eka Software Solutions Social media attractions, lesser Head-HR for creating attractiveness for
openings but better offers/ IL& FS Financial Services making such talent consider
packages and bigger hikes will new employment choices.
be the focus of the year. Campus Placement would be
Seetharam Subramanyam The key trend will continue to stronger though not in terms of
VP-HR (Global TA and RMG operations) be productivity and hiring will higher packages. Jobs versus
CSS Corp be purely on skill and age profile would see lowering of
competence mixed with right age requirements.
attitude. Companies have moved Sanjay Jain
More organisations will use the from conventional hiring VP-Corporate HR
social media to market process to more sophisticated Abhijeet Group

Watch out research.timesjobs.com for more articles on hiring outlook 2012

SWOT 2012…
Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats
l More and more jobs will move l Lack of domain or functional l RPO for mid-size companies l Recruiting industry is still
to India or created in India expertise seen as unorganised sector
l Unorganised sectors moving
itself
l Absence of proper recruiting into organised sectors (for l Large players may emerge
l Growth of technology and the tracking systems and example, Retail) which may and local players may have
ease of reaching out to processes at recruiting create a plethora of recruiting difficulty in sustaining their
prospective employees will companies opportunities business
help employers source talent
l Challenge to handle complex l Employer branding will be in l Retention could turn out to be
for niche roles more easily
hiring situations and cost focus and is going to see better the highest-economic-impact
l More alignment between the push results this year area
industry and recruitment
l Talent Crunch. War for talent l Use of social media and l Uncertainty in the global
segment in terms of better
for niche and specialised moving from a "me too" market due to recession and
understanding
positions and roles – scarcity strategy to embracing new economic downturn
l Maturity of recruitment of supply techniques
l Lesser rate of growth,
practices and tools
l The global economic climate l Extension of recruitment political instability resulting
l Resilience of Indian Industry coupled with Government process outsourcing to other in overall slowdown and
and growth in the newer performance and expected industries like banking, cautious outlook by global
sectors depending on showering down of rate of financing and insurance investors
investment climate growth in GDP industries

2

VOLUME-II | ISSUE 2
HIRING & BEYOND
JANUARY ISSUE

As we celebrate our first anniversary..
We thank all our readers for their constant support and motivation!
Anniversaries are a good time to reminisce, take stock and look ahead, and that’s what we’ve
tried to do in this special issue commemorating the first anniversary of TJinsite.
Looking back and recollecting gives us a better understanding of where we are now, what all
we accomplished to get here, how we reached here and what do we want to do next. A good
understanding of the past helps us envision better.
With this special anniversary issue we have tried to capture the gamut of HR subjects, which
TJinsite has researched so far. This issue focuses on how each of these hiring aspects have
evolved and what significance do they hold in the present-day HR universe.
As they say.. “The journey has just begun..” And TJinsite look forward to provide quality and
relevant content for many more years to the HR and recruitment fraternity with your enduring
support.

Thank You!
Team TJinsite

SUBSCRIBE TODAY
Log on to www.research.timesjobs.com

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VOLUME-II | ISSUE 2
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Changing Hiring Landscape ANALYTICS
METHODOLOGY
H
iring is an integral part stage of hiring goes a long way hiring should focus on the core
of any organisation and in damaging the functionality of business and the strengthening
is a continuous process. businesses. As a result, of it, is all about the accurate The insights and analysis
It has evolved in processes, recruiters today are learning defining of the current state of provided by TJinsite is based
functionality and approach. contemporary techniques to the organisation, the future on the data collected from
Plenty of change swirls around select the right candidate for desired state and the job seekers, employers and
in the HR world. With changing available jobs. implementing of the plan. industry experts through
dynamics and economies, hiring Since, so much effort and time But it is not the organisations personal interviews,
process and strategies have goes into recruitment processes, that adapt to change, it is their telephonic interviews,
undergone a transmission for organisation have started people and in the focus on the mailers, online polls and
small and large businesses alike. surveys.
“Organisations must change l The TJ research team
because their environments runs polls on TimesJobs.com
change," according to Thomas S. to capture information from
Bateman and Carl P. Zeithaml in over 3 lakh unique job
their book Management: seekers visiting
Function and Strategy . TimesJobs.com daily Data is
.
"Today, businesses are also collected from 3.5 lakh
bombarded by incredibly high HR professionals, registered
rates of change from a on TimesJobs.com, through
frustratingly large number of telephonic interviews and
sources... Inside pressures come online polls and surveys
from top managers and lower-
l Results of polls and
level employees who push for
interviews are corroborated
change. Outside pressures come
by analysing the vast data-
from changes in the legal,
base that TimesJobs.com
competitive, technological, and
economic environments." maintains and updates
regularly
Whether the reason for hiring is
strategic, financial or technical, l A final round of data and

T
the people in the organisation information check is
are always central to the change he talent market is always in a higher undertaken by surveying job
and managing the people side of demand and lower supply of “good” seekers across the
change is extremely crucial. people. Opportunities are in recruitment industry
Having tasted the market abundance. Every organisation is positioning l The data is also vetted by
slowdown, many organisations
are now learning to focus on
its best face to the talent market. This itself is industry experts who check

bigger aspects of hiring – a big challenge. Positioning ourselves as the for aberrations and
discrepancies at the macro
retention, training and most desired employer to work with, level
development, employee participating in best employer surveys,
engagement and manpower
planning and management. HR
understanding what a best employer does
fraternity today understands the best and being ahead of competition is
criticality of all these aspects of critical.
hiring and the challenges that Murali Santhanam
follows. Executive VP-Group Human Resources
CavinKare Pvt. Ltd.
The challenge also encompasses
the technical and quantitative
components of hiring. For
understanding that retention is business objectives there is a
instance, the budgetary
as critical to the success of any clear danger of people being
allocations are no longer
organisation as an effective overlooked, possibly leading to
unlimited. Considerable thought
hiring approach. the failure of the hiring process.
is given today while allocating
Organisational change is Therefore, as the changing
budget to HR and recruitment
inevitable in today’s changing dynamics of hiring demands, it
functions. Slowdown has taught
business world and is complex is extremely important, to align
India Inc tread cautiously .
due to the interdependencies the people with the recruitment
Therefore, companies are hiring
between stakeholders, process, the technology and the
but they are vigilant as they
organisation and supporting new system and ensure the
cannot afford to make a hiring
technologies. The process of success of the hiring program.
error. An error in the initiation

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Hiring
A Paradigm Change in Hiring Practices
A
fter the recession hiring changed, the drivers of hiring
patterns changed Paradigm Change in and employee engagement has
distinctively Currently,
. also changed dramatically HR
.
also, apprehensive of the
Hiring Practices department has risen in
slowdown in the US markets, importance to deal with long-
India Inc is hiring cautiously term goal setting and
and specifically . 4% projections. As the workforce
6% development needs and
The BPO and ITeS sector, reliant
on the world economy for ambitions are so unique and
7% 36% dynamic it has become even
business has been able to keep
up with the international more challenging for the HR
economic downturn. According fraternity to have a clear vision
to one of the TJinsite studies and long-term goal in place.
23%
companies in these industries According to international
are coping up better compared studies and industry experts,
to other key sectors. Industry
24% the functionality of HR
experts believe that domestic department has gradually

E
strengthening of these shifted from being a mere
mployees industrial operations have paved Recruitment Portal support function to a prominent
have made a way for their success. Reference/ Word of mouth leader in any discussion on
company strategy, goals or
qualitative Where earlier, organisations
would hire talent with fairly
Recruitment Agencies
Print
mergers and acquisitions.
shift – they look at generic skills as a strategic
Social/ Professional Networking Sites
Not only the functioning and
job and work buffer to expected and
forecasted ramp ups that would Job Fairs
process have undergone change
but also the preference for
profile and also a be required; now, the trend has
word of mouth and recruitment
hiring channels has changed.
good work-life been towards contract hiring,
where talent is recruited for a
agencies.
With the growth of internet as a
hiring medium, recruitment
balance. They are specific project or ‘Just-In-Time’ However there are variations portals have gained a lot of
now prioritizing hiring where the hiring is based
on business demand.
when analysed by industry type.
Print is the most popular source
acceptance. Most organisations
today vote for online
friends, family and Skills, not educational
among the IT companies, 63% of recruitment portals as the most
factors such as this. qualifications are at a premium
them said that they rely on print
media. Among the other
popular source for hiring,

Employers too are in the industry today Job
.
specific skills, followed by
industries, BFSI favours word of
followed by recruitment
agencies and employee referrals.
looking at experience are more prized than
mouth and the CRM/Call
Centres/BPO favour
Print has taken a backstage as

developing and educational qualifications,
which in the past were seen as a
recruitment agencies.
far as being, a recruitment
medium is concerned
nurturing talent. passport to a good job. A meager Besides the recruitment
They want to 10% employers surveyed by practices, candidate preferences
and aspirations have also
recruit well and TJinsite, cited educational
qualifications as being changed. While earlier, people
retain better. something that they look for in a
candidate.
were more than willing to
compromise on location and job
Celine George profile for money, the scenario
Organisations today prefer to
Partner has changed today One of the
.
use their internal resources to
People Facet give themselves a competitive
recent TJinsite studies revealed
that salary is no more the
edge. In a survey conducted by
TimesJobs.com, 70% of the
driving factor for present breed FACTS
of workforce. Job profile counts
organisations across industry
the most while deciding on
type preferred to use internal
resources over hiring outside
taking up a new job or sticking TimesJobs
help in the form of consultants
to the current one. This could be
attributed to the shift in thought
provides you a
or others.
Use of recruitment portals seem
process of the workforce. They talent pool of
are thinking long-term and are
to be on an upswing. In a more concerned about the more than 1.8
TJinsite study, recruitment
portals have emerged as the
sustainability rather than
making quick bucks.
crore resumes to
most popular source for hiring
Since, the expectations and
choose from
of resources, followed by both
motivations of workforce have

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Skills
Fall-out of the Talent Crunch
W
hile hiring is on the available for employment; there
increase, the problems Biggest challenge are not enough numbers of
with the talent pool sufficiently skilled people in the
available still continue. Skills right place at the right time.
are at a premium and extremely 8% India Inc requires talent in
hard to find, whichever the quantity and quality; and that
sector. puts companies in a dilemma:
18%
In the year 2006-2007, the talent 42% the inability to retain talent due
crunch in Indian industry was to cross-hiring erodes their
identified as the top trend of the competitive advantage, but the
year. Despite the economic competition for talent sends
slowdown that followed this salaries so high that
trend continues. In 2010, mass competitiveness is lost anyway .
hiring happened in all the
32%
The growing economy has
industry segments leading the spawned many industry
economy (according to a segments that are nascent and
TimesJobs.com survey, nearly Skill/ Talent crunch in job seekers

O
evolving which create new
80% of organisations said they Retaining the existing workforce
ur biggest were hiring) and employers Meeting the salary expectations
requirements for skill sets,
leading to a further mismatch
talent crunch continue to face the problems of
people shortage and attrition.
Lack of experienced workforce between requirement and

is at the As shown in an earlier TJinsite the employer’s scheme of
availability.

design levels in
The mismatch between the skill
studies on skills - talent and things. What is really worrying shortage and requirement,
textiles and experience, not education, has
emerged as the most valued
for recruiters here is that talent
and skills remain a big problem
especially given the large

engineers who are attribute when hiring. This is a which is as yet unresolved.
number of graduates, and
therefore, ostensibly the
seeking a career at uniform need across all
industry sectors. Only 6-10% of
The reasons for this talent employable mass is brought out

the shop floor. At the organisations claimed
crunch are two-fold. One is the
mass recruitment that is
starkly in the TJinsite Skills
Survey It is obvious that India
.
the entry level we educational qualifications as
being important.
happening across industry Inc will have to quickly seek
are able to attract Employers are fairly specific
segments. Given the pressure to
fill positions at all levels of
solutions by which it can
remedy this situation. Unless
good talent. about the skill sets that they management, employers are measures are taken at the
Domain knowledge require with each industry
segment emphasizing a certain
recruiting not just from the
same sector but also from other
grassroots level to solve this it
will continue to dog the industry
for manufacturing area; for instance in the IT sectors. for years to come
is important. More industry, the technical skills,
that is, knowledge of Java,
While the preference is still for
importantly, we VBNet, PeopleSoft, Oracle and
people from within the industry,
the shortage of talent is
look for candidates SAP are important, whereas in compelling employers to look
who fit into our the BFSI it is more the
communication, negotiation and
outside the industry as well.
Employers today, are looking for
value systems. analytical skills that are
important.
ever more specific skill sets are
less willing to engage in
Asit Mohapatra
Although skill requirement vary anticipatory hiring and seem to
Director-HR
by industry, what is common to be more willing to trade a
Raymond Textile all industry segments is the ‘precise fit’ for a ‘teachable fit’,
where they hire talent that has
enumeration of the top five
skills in demand across the basics in place and then
FACTS
industries. These include teach them to fit into the desired
communication skills, technical
skills, leadership skills, soft
role.
The second reason for the
TJ offers you
skills, inter-personal skills. shortage of talent is the poor more than 52 lac
It is clear that an educational
degree per se has become
quality of higher education in
the country Of the 2.5 million
.
experienced IT
hygiene and therefore fallen in university graduates, only 10- professionals
the hierarchy and value-add 25% are considered employable.
skills in the areas listed above This is creating a situation
have become much more where, though technically there
important and quite critical in is a vast pool of educated young

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Succession Planning
Planning for Future Leaders
S
uccession planning is planning. Apart from the
defined as the systematic Is succession emotional issue of employees
process of developing feeling threatened when asked
individuals to fill organisational
planning to groom their successor, the
key roles. The performance of important? prediction of future needs of the
companies depends on the organisation itself poses a
quality and effectiveness of 98% challenge to the time-deficient
their leaders. With the help of management.
succession planning, YES The benefits of succession
organisations aim to effect a planning though, once the
well-designed change of challenges are overcome, are
leadership. manifold.
This is a laudable objective for First, a planned transition
every organisation to have and would mean less upheaval in the
succession planning is seen as company’s functioning and
crucial in ensuring that there is structure, resulting in better
no vacuum created in the event

A
business performance.
of a sudden leadership change.
s a part of However what really happens?
,
Second, succession planning can
tackle the perpetual attrition
our company TJinsite delved into succession problem, leading to higher
strategy, we planning processes and employee retention.

have ‘universal
motivations and conducted a 2% Third, succession planning if
study to carve out the current formally instituted and
leaders’ in our trends in this area. The study NO systematized, can lessen the
organisation, where revealed striking findings about
the succession planning process ‘replacement planning’ with this
anxiety felt by employees and
actually lead to more employee
they know the and practices in India Inc. process. However, this is not empowerment.
processes of all While nearly all of the done in almost half the
organisations (according to
Clearly challenges exist for
functions. At any organisations agreed that
succession planning is TJinsite study), and where it is
companies attempting to plan
the workforce of their future.
given point, one extremely important, 40% being done there does not seem But putting a succession
leader can handle admitted to not having adopted to be much clarity in the planning process in place,
it. This is an incredibly high process. strategically planning for the
the task of other percentage, given that the Therefore, succession planning proactive management of their
leader smoothly importance is seen as high. like the elephant in the room,
becomes something that
talent pool, and engaging their

before hiring a Most organisations prefer to
look within the company for the everyone knows exists and is
employees in the process, can
result in a more secure future
resource. successor. The reasons for
looking outside the company
necessary, but no one is willing
to adopt, or at least finds
for the organisation

Rajendra Ghag and industry when hiring for excuses to delay adopting!
Executive Vice President-HR & Admin leadership positions is mainly to The main hurdles to putting
HDFC Life acquire skill sets not currently succession planning in place
available in the industry and to seem to be attitudinal.
gain new perspectives. Organisations admit that
So, what’s the hold up? Why unclear organisational vision,
aren’t more companies using low interest, and the lack of FACTS
succession planning? succession planning and career
The reasons could be many . development tools are the chief
Usually, a large part of the obstacles to the implementation
of the process.
Armed with
reason is the softer issues of
employee morale, disruption in Time and resources and
intelligent hiring
the existing pattern and the therefore the attitude are the tools TJ offers you
prominent challenges for
bringing of a few employees into
extreme focus leading to anxiety organisations considering faster and
and tension. succession planning. Typically
the day-to-day challenges of
seamless
It is evident that organisations
clearly understand the need for running the organisation recruitment
succession planning and seemingly overpower the
organisation's ability to
experience
replacing what is today, largely
proactively engage in succession

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Training & Development
Employee Engagement & Development
I
t is an economic reality that expense on training, is back to
the growth and survival of a Preferred training square one.
thriving enterprise will
depend on employee retention.
method Barriers of budgets and
structure need serious
Employing good in-house consideration. Also given that
training programs is the key to the lack of employee
retaining valued employees. 4% enthusiasm is marked, efforts
Training and development 13% need to be made to examine and
programs have been voted as the dissect the nature of the current
most effective method of programs and make them far
employee engagement. more motivating and directional
The criticality of training, for them.
especially in-house training has
51%
That the problem of retention
been well documented. The 32% and employee attrition is huge
importance of having an is a well known fact. The
educated and well-trained question then is: is the industry
workforce in order for using the tool of in house
companies to remain
With training competitive and prosper during On-the-job training by seniors
training effectively enough?
Evidently not. From this survey
programs ranging changing times cannot be
emphasized more. According to
Workshops and seminars it is clear that there are barriers
from entry-level to a TJinsite study, 70% of the
External trainers
Manuals and journals
of budgets and structure, which

the highest-level organisations have separate in- organisations need to, take a
house training departments. serious look at. Also given that
executives, the Not surprisingly, soft skills
widen the scope of their
experience, and with
the lack of employee

focus is on the emerge as the area where about associating freshmen with
enthusiasm is marked, efforts
need to be made to examine and
all-round
half of the organisations claim senior employees as trainees.
that they need training the dissect the nature of the current

development of most. Overall, training is ultimately
seen as resulting in increased
programs and make them far
more motivating and directional
employees. In-house training has numerous
advantages, as listed by
productivity and boosting for them
‘Training need industry experts. These include:
employee morale. This is also
probably because of both, the
analysis’ is done l Cost savings with more long and the odd hours that
on a continuous effective group training employees have to put in during
their working day .
basis. New l Training times crafted around
company schedules In-house training, in particular,
technology l The ability to address specific is seen as helping maintain
upgrades and employee training needs business continuity when an
employee is lost; on the job
business needs are l Reduced travel time with on-
site training
training which all organisations
an essential part of l Convenience - Programs are
have is seen as important for
this reason. Many organisations
this approach. delivered at a time, location also hold periodic workshops
and pace that fit in with the and seminars and some hire
Vivek Punekar
organisation’s business external trainers to conduct
Chief Human Resource Officer schedule. training sessions. FACTS
HCLInfosystems
l Hand- picked trainer/s that fit On the hind side most
into specific training needs organisations feel that employee
engagement and training and
Talent mix
All organisations have a
combination of formal and development programs have spread across the
informal training methods. The
most preferred training method
their drawbacks as well. Firstly,
lot of investment goes into this
geography
is on the job training. About 15- process, and with the crunch on lets you hire
20% also used the
internet/intranet as an
talent and the hunt for skilled
people, a trained individual the Right
informal training resource. fetches a premium in the market Candidate
and is quite likely to jump jobs
Informal training centred
around providing the employees for a better salary The attrition
. for every
with challenging work or rate then remains as high, and
the employer, despite the
location
rotating their job profiles to

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Retention
Growing Focus on Retention
E
mployee attrition is the production losses from a high
biggest nightmare of any What is more attrition rate is stated as some
employer. Some amount other benefits of retention, by
of attrition is inevitable and
challenging? the surveyed employers.
even healthy for a business, but Understanding the notions of
when the attrition rises to levels the modern-day workforce, the
that are way beyond an strategies for retention today is
organisation’s threshold, then 18%
more to do with the softer
the associated costs of attrition aspects. Many organisations
start to spiral and impact the claimed to have set in place a
company’s bottom-line. structure for better employee
The costs of employee attrition communication and
can be staggeringly high. Some involvement. Some also claim
studies seem to suggest that the that they provide growth
costs can be between 0.5 to 5 opportunities and training,
times an employee’s wages 82% facility for changes in job profile
depending on the employee’s and job rotation.

Y
position in the organisation. Not
ou have to only are there quantifiable costs Retaining existing talent
Attrition and therefore
retention is obviously a burning
get people of employee turnover such as
the costs of recruitment
Finding new talents issue in the industry today.

emotionally (advertising, recruitment freshmen and the executives, the
Studies show that the root of
attrition sometimes begins in
bonded to the agencies, background checks…
..) hiring costs (sign-on
executives seem more prone to
job-hopping, probably because
the recruitment process itself. A
company. incentives, bonuses) and in having learnt the ropes of their
Harvard University study
reports that 80% of employee
Companies should some cases the severance pay; trade and made an assessment turnover can be attributed to
keep their
but there are also the intangible of their own value to the mistakes made during the
costs of lower productivity, the organisation, they are ready to hiring process.
employees engaged costs of employee overtime, and scan the horizon for better
While hiring, the tendency is to
in the organisation. the costs of downtime while the
learning curve kicks in for the
opportunities to further their
career.
go for the best and the brightest
We should let the new recruit; not to mention the A second reason for higher
recruit. If instead of focusing on
these types of employees, the
employees know knowledge of the company and
the business that the employee
attrition at the lower levels focus was on the best match for
that their carries with them when they
could also be related to life
stage. At a younger and more
the job, the fallacy of over-
hiring, which again leads to
contribution is leave. responsibility-free life stage, the attrition, can be avoided. The
significant to the According to a survey conducted
by TJinsite on the flip-side of
employees are more willing to
experiment and take risks with
strategy of increasing employee
involvement and
organisation and attrition, which is retention, their resumes and jobs. The communication should go far in
that the company shows how widespread the
worry is and how broadly, the
higher they move up in the life-
stage, the greater the
increasing the trust levels and

wants the problem could be addressed. responsibility and lower the
therefore slowing the attrition
process.
employees to be Uniformly, about 85% of the
organisations said that
willingness to risk losing the
accrued benefits and the
In conclusion, retention should
with them. retention was a bigger headache reputation that they have built
be tackled from the grassroots
rather than treating just the
than finding people with the up.
Sanjay Gupta symptoms to put a brake on high
right skill sets. Following this is The main reason behind
Global Head-Human Resource attrition
the corollary that again, growing focus on retention
EXL Service
retaining employees was far strategies is the impact it would
more important than hiring a have on the bottom line.
new employee, who comes with Preventive maintenance in
the associated costs of training
and settling in. The implication
terms of avoiding the costs FACTS
associated with employee
here, is also the investment costs
in an employee, both time and
turnover such as hiring and
training is the reason given by
More than
money that the organisation
loses, when it loses talent.
about half the organisations for 20,000 new
While attrition occurs at all
pursing a robust retention
policy, as per the TJinsite study
resumes are
levels, about 90% of it happens on retention. Apart from this added daily on
at the lower two echelons of the easily quantifiable cost, the
organisation. Between the deduced cost in terms of TJ

9

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Being Social
Augmenting Social Media
M
any companies today maintaining a virtual network and expanding their trade, there
use social media to of professionals is crucial to has been a parallel focus on
screen potential hires, today’s business needs. revamping existing business
and to add band value so to According to Seetharam processes to more efficient and
attract top talent. When Subramanyam, VP-HR, Global effective forms.
executed properly, social media TA and RMG operations, “Real Use of social media is one such
offers recruiting managers a strength of social media is step in that direction. It is new
larger applicant pool, more relationship-building by your and getting bigger. This is a
access to information that will employees. With proper form of online recruitment
enable them to better pre-screen coordination, employee method and similarly, is an
and filter candidates. relationships can easily be ongoing process. Every step in
One of the key trends in the turned into employee referrals. the process of hiring through
current recruitment process has The net result will be that as social media sites is crucial to
been the evolution of social many as 60% of all hires will its effectiveness. Staring from
media. In a study conducted by come from the combined identifying job opening, posting
TimesJobs.com 36% of HR efforts.” it on relevant sites, the language
managers said that among the used, the key words inserted,

I
As you supplement your
available recruitment channels and continuous feedback and
nformation and online recruitment portals
recruitment process with social
media usage, the process needs assessment is detrimental to its
communication delivers the best results and
social media is catching up real
success.

technologies fast.
“Adapting social media tools
from the business coupled with
have become Industry experts believe that strong analytics will allow a
ubiquitous across social media attractions are
going to be the focus of
more focused approach that
harnesses and directs the effort
any organisation. recruitment industry in the of all employees on social
The interesting, coming times. media. Talent leaders will
increasingly see the value of a
collaborative and As Raja Shanmugam, Chief
People Officer, Happiest Minds combination of internal and
socially oriented Technologies articulated, “We external social media
approaches for managing and
things that people are welcoming into a generation
that has been entirely fed on developing talent,” said
do in their personal credit, mobility, internet and Meenakshi Roy, Sr Vice

lives may actually social networking. Role models
are either to be clearly defined and
President-Human Resources,
Reliance Broadcast Network.
create a businessmen/entrepreneurs accurately followed. Before For job seekers, this highlights
foundational skill- side or sportspersons, many of
them regularly exposed as idols
hopping on to any social media
site, it is important to map the
the importance of having an
active profile on social and
set that is valuable with clay feet. Self-control, organisation’s future talent professional networking sites
at the work place. morality, frugality, delayed
gratification, deferring to
requirements. Use the
information gathered while
mapping to search
Dr Nicole Haggerty experience are not any more the
sought after virtues (“not cool”). systematically for prospective
Associate Professor-Management
Recruitment processes therefore candidates. Mapping and
Information Systems
need to marry these dramatic searching sometimes co-exists
Richard Ivey School of Business
demographic changes with the and support each other. It is a
organizational expectations of continuous process. The most
loyalty, teamwork, stability, crucial thing is controlling the
productivity and contribution.” processes. Efficient use of FACTS
monitoring tools is essential to
Maintaining company’s get desired results from the
presence on social and
professional networking
process. TJ offers you
websites helps in brand building In this age of business
dynamism and technological
more than
and ads to the recall value.
Posting organisation profile and revolutions, business processes 21 lac top
brief about the core functions
helps people understand the
have seen an internal
transformation. Today, we are
management
work culture and job connected to the world like industry
never before. As organisations
requirement. According to
industry experts, creating and continue to explore newer and veterans
efficient methods of sustaining

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HIRING & BEYOND

Talent Diversity
Identifying Diverse Talent Pools
G
lobalisation has resulted surmounting some of the
in organisations to preconceptions employers have
become more flexible and about employing older
adaptable. There is a big onus on workforce.
the human resources In essence, it should be
department to push for and understood that all employees
leverage the potential of a regardless of gender, caste,
diverse workforce. colour, creed or age are valuable.
By effectively harnessing the Learning how to leverage the
talent of a diverse workforce, skills and experience of the
managers can help their available assorted talent can
companies to produce results reap huge benefits for the
that are comparatively superior. organisation. Employers need to
Also, since the recruitment be flexible, patient and mature
industry across globe is workforce, it is essential to in their approach to hold on to
grappling with talent crunch, it screen there industry and the valuable skills and
becomes even more important to functional area experience. knowledge of experienced staff

R
leverage the available diverse They can also be considered for
etirees who talent pool. flexible forms of working, such
possess the According to a study by as, a mentoring role or
consulting projects.
requisite skill TimesJobs.com the percentage
of retirees looking for jobs has Age has often been a key factor
sets alongwith the witnessed a significant increase. when choosing candidates for

desired experience The number of seniors citizens
(60 years +) looking for a job has
job positions. However, the
scenario is now changing. To
levels are jumped 12% during Jan–Jun make most of the available
becoming a 2011 as compared to Jul-Dec 2010
period.
skilled workforce, organisations
are now training the HR and
preferred resource. Since, every industry is recruitment staff about age
As businesses struggling to fill in the skills diversity This largely involves,
.

discover the gap, retirees who possess the
requisite skill sets along-with
advantages of the desired experience levels are
hiring retired becoming a preferred resource.
While hiring retirees, recruiters
professionals, the look for experience in the
opportunities for specified functional area. As
businesses discover the
workforce at 60 is advantages of hiring retired
flourishing. professionals, the opportunities
for workforce at 60 is
Industry Experts flourishing.
However, some companies are
still apprehensive of hiring
retired professionals. There is
still awareness and
understanding needed on the
fact that finding the best
candidate is about matching the
right competencies, values and
attitude, irrespective of age.
Another concern could be that
though older workforce often
has the necessary skills, but
sometimes are not familiar with
new technology or work
environments. These problems
can be overcome by effective
induction and tailored training
programs.
The scarcity of talent is evident
at every level, position, across
functional areas, companies and
industries. Keeping this in
mind, recruitment and training
processes need to be kept
flexible. While recruiting older

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Reverse Brain Drain
Emergence of Reverse Brain Drain

W
ith a steady flow of economic conditions in India,
foreign nationals and Why are they the returning workforce also
migrants returning feels that prospects are much
home to fill vacancies for the
returning? better at home.
senior level positions, reverse Apart from the primary draw of
brain drain is expected to be one better economic opportunities
of the key highlights of India 5% in countries like India and
Inc’s future hiring landscape.
12% China, a desire to be closer to
A recently published report, family and friends and for
'The Grass is Indeed Greener in 30% instance, a flawed US
India and China for Returnee immigration system are
Entrepreneurs' by the Kauffman responsible for the reverse brain
Foundation in association with drain.
the Duke University, University
25%
All this is happening at a time at
of California-Berkeley and the
Harvard University, states that
28% which the Indian industry that
has been ruing the lack of real
what was once a "brain drain"

T
talent despite a huge educated
that advantaged the US economy
here has been now is reversed to the long-term Job security
base, can cash in on the reverse
brain drain and create a win-
an increase in benefit of India and China”. Better future prospects win situation for themselves and

workforce The report says that while there
is no hard data available on how
Better packages
Better profiles
the returning talent

inflow from many “skilled immigrants” have
Better education
foreign nations already left the US, the available
data clearly indicates that the
following growing trend has been accelerating
probably influenced by the poor
economic conditions in the US
and better dramatically over the past five
years; tens of thousands are
and Europe where there have
opportunities in the now returning home every year,
been layoffs at these levels,
leading to the flight of human
Indian IT market. and most authorities abroad
agree with these estimates.
capital from these shores back to
Another factor What is the extent of the reverse
India/China.

which affects this brain drain? Why are Indians
Seemingly, the local employees
are taken care of reasonably
phenomenon is returning home to work? Has
India become an attractive
well in the face of the ‘foreigner
high exposure level destination, not only for
influx’. Only about 8% of the
organizations reported laying
and mobility space returning Indians, but for
expatriates as well?
off or sending the employees on
GUEST COLUMN
in the industry. According to a TJinsite survey,
forced leave. About 70% of the
organizations expand their
Anil Warrier
60% of all the surveyed functions or create new Starting 2012,
Director-Talent Acquisition
employers said that they are
experiencing the influx of
departments or roles to TJinsite is glad to
accommodate the employees.
SAP India introduce a new
foreign human capital. This is With the economy in the US and
backed up by the statistic that
nearly 60% of the organisations
other traditional crucibles of feature ‘Guest
the brain drain from India being
say that compared to early 2011, at best, jittery, it is the lure of Column’. We invite
the number of expatriates in
their organisation have
job security and better prospects HR industry and
that are bringing the talent back
definitely increased. home. However, there is more to thought leaders to
Most organisations stated that
there has been an approximate
the reverse brain drain than job
security and prospects. It is
contribute and
increase of upto 10% in evident that there are more share their
applications from outside India
during the first half of 2011. The
complex softer processes at
work, which is causing the
knowledge with the
worker inflow is maximum at drain. recruitment world.
middle management level,
reveals the survey .
Quite clearly, in the trade-off For details write in
between a better salary and job
Nearly 70% of the inflow is in security, security wins. to
the less than 5 years of Additionally, what is interesting neha.verma3@timesgroup.com
experience category This is
. is that reflecting the better

12

VOLUME-II | ISSUE 2
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HIRING & BEYOND

13

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W
ith a vision to develop a robust
database of ‘employable’ &
manpower in the country,
TimesJobs.com along with the group’s
Present

Skills Dialogue
financial powerhouse, The Economic
Times started a new project – The Skills
Dialogue. This initiative is an effort to put
a finger on the skills that are in short
supply and work towards eliminating
them. The Journey so far...
The first such dialogue was held in Delhi
on 10th December 2010. Nine CXOs
discussed the issue of skills shortfall and
the solutions to these in the BPO industry .
Pointing out the skill gap areas, the most
crucial factor was identified as language.
The dialogue concluded with the key
pointers that BPO as an industry needs to
have global acceptable standard
certifications. Somebody needs to take
initiative to pool in all the efforts into
collaborated one. Moreover, with
government ready to provide assistance
funds are not an issue.
Taking leads from the Delhi ITeS/BPO
Chapter, the next dialogue kick-started
with business leaders highlighting the
problems faced at the industry level. The
west chapter, held in Mumbai on 18th
February 2011 saw CXOs from various
multi-national corporations and HR
experts taking the discussion further and
delving deep into the skills issues in the
BPO industry They discussed the need for
.
academia intervention and suggested that
universities and colleges should develop
certification programs specifically for the
BPO industry The west chapter concluded
.
with the key thought that building an
early intervention at the education
institutes and re-branding the industry
using success stories and right job
description will help the industry to
attract and retain talent.
The third such dialogue was held in
Hyderabad on March 18. The forum paved
way for business heads of leading BPO
companies to come together and discuss so
that the industry can come out with new
strategies to address the problems of
availability of talent pool in a
collaborative manner. The initiative also
witnessed participation from academia
helping the industry to get an insight into
the root cause of the employability
problems.
This series ITeS/BPO conclave was
culminated in the Annual Skills Summit,
held on May 27th at The Oberoi, New

14

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HIRING & BEYOND

Delhi. It provided a platform for
deliberations among the industry leaders
from the IT, ITeS and infrastructure sectors
across the country The event witnessed
.
enriching discussions between the speakers
and the delegates. The event paved way for
ideas and initiatives that should be
instigated to bridge the skills gap.
The summit was inaugurated by Mr. Kapil
Sibal, Honorable Union Minister for HRD,
Government of India. He suggested ways to
bridge the skills gap by introducing skill-
based vocational training modules at the
elementary to higher secondary level in our
education system. This summit was a
means through which Government voiced
its plans to industry and academia alike.
This attempt to create a truly action
oriented forum worthy of industry-
government-academia interaction has been
very well received by all quarters of the
workforce community .
Taking this vision forward, TJ embarked
onto phase-II of the Skills initiative. The
Skills Dialogue in the second phase has
taken on the challenge of defining the skills
gaps and targets to be met for the ‘Great
Indian IT segment’. The aim is to identify
new practices for skills development, newly
emerging technical skills and challenges
faced by non-IT firms. Skills which help IT
& Tech organisations differentiate
themselves in the industry as well as those
which define their existence at entry level
to get that ‘big’ push in their hiring
quotient.
We have already concluded three chapters
of the IT/Tech – Skills Dialogue in
Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad
respectively and there is more to look
forward to in the New Year.
This is just a beginning for the work that
must be done to mitigate the problem of
skills crunch. With the Skills initiative The
Times Group hopes to play its part as a
facilitator and change-maker.

15

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JANUARY ISSUE

Letters to Editor
"I find the content of TJInsite very useful and I make it “It’s nice and crisp data.”
a habit to read it regularly The design is interesting and
. K Thyagrajan Iyer, GM-HR, Mott Mac Donald
appealing. It would be nice to see a segment on Best
Practices across Industries in the future." “Great initiative!”
Anila Rajneesh, Head-HR, HDFC Anand Sathaye, GM-HR, Tata Motors

"I am a regular reader of TJInsite. The content is well “Very nice initiative by TimesJobs.”
organized and the infographics are quite impressive. A
Sagar Vadapurkar, Head-Recruitment, Bajaj Allianz
feature on Niche Skill Compensation within the IT
Life
space would be useful.”
“High quality content.”
Anirban Chakraborty, HR, Keane
Prakash Karn, Head-Recruitment, Fujitsu

"The journal is very informative. I make it a point to
“TJinsite is very relevant for the recruitment activity
read the journal on a regular basis. it is definitely a good
and the articles are of high-quality I look for my copy
.
initiative. Industry specific insights could be added.
eagerly every month. Being from the telecom sector, I
The content is crisp and makes for a good read.”
feel you should add a data sheet for each sector on
Anup Srivastav, Head-HR, Aster Pvt. Ltd.
monthly basis to provide a base figure.”
Bikash Prasad, Stel
“A good Initative very detailed and researched content.”
Gautam Bhushan, Sr VP-HR, WNS
“I am very happy with kind of work you are doing to
collaborate knowledge bases for the HR community.
“Good initiative from TimesJobs. Keep us updated with TJinsite surely makes an interesting read. I look
current industry trends.” forward for my copy every month”
Riacha Tripathim, Senior Manager, SBI life Ajay Kumar Tripathi, Cogent Soft Solutions Pvt. Ltd.

“Value-add newsletter for HR fraternity.” “It’s really nice to read TJinsite. I find the articles and
Sunil Kashikar, Head-Recruitment, Zensar surveys really useful in day-to-day HR practices in my
organization.”
“Something like this definitely enhances knowledge.” Abhishek Mishra, HR, Alstom Projects
Bobby Kuriokose, GM-HR, Forbes Marshall
“No doubt, this newsletter caters to the needs of HR
“I think it’s a good initiative for the HR industry in professionals in an eye-catching format. But seeing the
India. It’s only three months since I have started reading dynamism of this platform, I feel your input level
this and I find it an interesting read.” should be larger and should provide an exhaustive
Ajita Mishra, Sr Manager-HR, Ibibo industry overview.”
Ajay Kumar, Recruitment Lead, Bosch
“Sound information about the Industry trends.”
Sandesh Kumar, AVP-HR, Wipro BPO “Good initiative very detailed and researched content.”
Gautam Bhushan, Sr VP HR, WNS

Editorial: E Jayashree Kurup, Girish Bindal, Apeksha Kaushik, Neha Singh Verma | Design: Harsha Khattar

Disclaimer: Information provided in this newsletter shall not be reproduced, published, re-sold or otherwise distributed in
any medium without the prior written permission of TimesJobs.com and a clear acknowledgement to TimesJobs.com.
Contact: TJinsite, TimesJobs.com, Plot No 6, Sector 16A, Film City, Noida. Write in to feedback@timesjobs.com
Copyright ©2012 Times Business Solutions Limited. All rights reserved.

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