TMI Group to connect SMEs with job seekers

Hyderabad-based TMI Group, an HR services company, has launched JobsDialog, an exclusive recruitment and retention service that connects small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with job seekers - mostly graduates, diploma holders, ITI pass-outs and MBAs who have zero to five years of work experience.

According to TMI Group chairman T Muralidharan, the initiative is aimed at bringing down costs of recruitment for SMEs and providing jobs for those seeking employment near their home towns. In the normal course, the average cost of placement by TMI is about Rs 35,000 per person. Through the new initiative, the cost of placement falls to Rs 5,000-7,000.

Muralidharan said it was possible to reduce the cost of recruitment, as the entire process by JobsDialog would be through a toll-free call or the internet. TMI would be setting up a call centre and a toll-free number, which can be called by any employer who wants to recruit people.

Whenever an employer makes a call seeking people for recruitment, TMI's recruitment experts will speak to job seekers over the phone. The interview of the candidate will also be done over the phone. TMI will provide information to job seekers on the organisation and confirm their interest in the job before forwarding their CV to the prospective employer.

The toll-free number was conceived so as to tap even those job seekers who were not Internet users. TMI has partnered with Idea Cellular to connect with job seekers who want to avail of its services. "We will identify and match them to the SME demand. We will also try to geographically match the location of the job seeker to the place where he is going to work," Muralidharan told Business Standard.

Explaining the reasons for focusing on SMEs, Muralidharan said TMI had made a survey of 330 SMEs across six districts in

Andhra Pradesh. The survey revealed that inability to attract and retain the right talent was among the top three issues hampering their growth. On the other hand, information on jobs available in SMEs was not reaching an estimated 20 million graduates with zero to five years experience, who were looking for jobs.

This apart, he said, jobs in large corporate houses had shrunk and were now available mostly in SMEs. At present, according to the Union government's 2012-13 MSME annual report, there are 44 million MSMEs in the country employing about 100 million people.