Public utilities go slow on recruitments

Even though the 1.5 billion organised recruitment market is expected to grow from 30 per cent to 50 per cent by 2010 on the back of a boom in sectors such as IT, ITeS, retail and telecom, public utilities are going slow on recruitments.

Currently, each of these industries recruit about a lakh of people every year with public utilities employing about 3.5 lakh per year.

"The growth in recruitment across public utilities is just about 5-8 per cent per annum," said Prakash Nahata, director of Anthroplace Consulting, an HR and recruitment consultant and member of Executive Recruiters Association (ERA).

Comparatively, recruitment in sectors such as IT, ITeS, retail and telecom grew at more than 60 per cent per year. According to members of ERA, foreign competition and inefficient Indian methods are causes for poor growth rate of these industries in India.

Even salary hike in public utilities are between 5 per cent and 12 per cent, whereas in other sectors it is close to 25 per cent. In booming sectors, salary hike is expected to increase to about 35 per cent by 2010, while not much of a difference could be expected for the rest.

"Graduates or undergraduates in these sectors earn close to Rs 8,000 on an average per month," said Nahata.

Attrition rate, however, is surprising low across the public utilities (10 per cent) because of less opportunity within these industries.

In booming sectors, attrition rate is not less than 35 per cent of recruitment, although companies resort to frequent salary hikes and promotions to combat this, said R P Yadav, managing director, Genius Consultants Limited, another HR and recruitment firm and member of ERA.

"Another reason for limited recruitment growth in these industries is the fact that promotions are often only on the basis of experience and not merit," said Nahata.

As a result, top management level employees are almost always 55 years of age, and mid-level managers resort to changing jobs or even domain areas in order to grow faster.

Comparatively, in booming sectors the employable age is gradually coming down, so much so that even a 40-year"�old these days is eligible to be the CEO of a company.

"Thanks to the exposure, children have access to information through internet and TV channels. By the time they reach the employable age, they have enough knowledge on managing the corporate world. But, due to growing demand in infrastructure and plastics industry, recruitment across industries like iron and steel, oil and refinery, jute, chemical, industrial, and trading, that have otherwise been very low on recruitment growth for the last few years, may grow at close to 20 per cent by 2010," Yadav said.

Once these sectors modernise and gear up to compete with the growing sectors, even salary hikes could improve and go up to 30 per cent per annum.