Recruitment in India on the Upswing Once Again

The recruitment outlook amongst employers in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore is once again on the upswing as companies plan to increase their hiring in the next quarter. A survey by TJ InSite, the research wing of TimesJobs.com, the country’s leading job portal promoted by the Times group, indicates that employers in India’s top cities have started hiring again.

The research outfit collated feedback from a wide range of corporate employers in Delhi Mumbai and Bangalore spanning sectors as diverse as IT, BPO and ITeS, engineering, logistics, healthcare, architecture, hospitality, travel and tourism, finance and accounting, and sales and marketing.

“The positive hiring outlook of employers in India is not unfounded,” remarks Vivek Madhukar, vice-president of TimesJobs.com. “The quarter-on-quarter growth that India Inc has witnessed both in terms of revenues and profits, and the continuation of government stability, policies and commitments have brought a more optimistic business forecast for organisations.”

The survey, held to capture hiring sentiment among companies, found that 42 per cent of employers in Delhi, 44 per cent in Mumbai and 24 per cent in Bangalore, plan to increase hiring in the next quarter.

According to the study, Delhi appears to be the most bullish with 81 per cent of employers quizzed recruiting to ‘Ramp Up for Growth’ over the next year. A majority of Mumbai corporates (57 per cent) are also hiring to grow their businesses.

Bangalore seems to be returning to reality, after the mass-retrenchment undertaken in the last quarter of fiscal 2009; 52 per cent of the corporates surveyed are undertaking replacement hiring.

Nine per cent of corporates in Delhi and six per cent in Mumbai — though a negligible percentage in Bangalore — are looking for qualified people in the senior managerial grade at the top of the corporate pyramid.

Demand for managers (with three to eight years experience), executives (one to three years) and freshers are also high in all three cities; 55 per cent of corporates surveyed in Bangalore were looking for executives, for instance.

“Hiring has started across all levels in the last three months, in the ITeS & BPO industry, though at half the pre-September 2008 levels,” points out Shailaja Puranik, country director and COO, Hays Business Solutions. “However, the major change now is that the hiring is happening for the core groups of business and not for support functions. Hiring is taking place in new areas or where outliers have been weeded out. Salaries have remained at earlier levels.”

According to Ravishankar B, senior vice-president, human resources, HCL Technologies, “Just-in-Time,” or JIT, hiring has begun in a small way.

“Today there are definite signs of hiring,” he points out. “While specialised or JIT hiring is happening and people with niche skills and some experience are being sought, we are also entertaining walk-ins and have been calling for interviews.”

Ravishankar, however, says that it is still too premature to comment whether this is a spike or a regular trend. “I think we have to wait for two to three months to make such a comment.”

nithin@khaleejtimes.com