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Considering the uncertain market conditions ahead, industry is changing hiring patterns with increasing emphasis on just-in-time recruitment rather than the conventional campus hiring, says the National Association for Software and Service Companies (Nasscom). The pace of hiring in the industry in India would be slower in 2014, it said.
Speaking to the reporters against the backdrop of Nasscom HR Summit 2013, Som Mittal, President, Nasscom, said, "Our hiring would get started some time in September this year and it will go on till February-March, because we have to go to about 500 colleges or so across the country. So that will go on. But campus hiring will be split up in two parts, one that happens between September and March, now and the other that will happen in May, June, July, next year. People do campus hires, but it will be a split."
He added, "So you might not see every one of us hiring all that we get. Those hiring patterns will change. The numbers will not be as big as it used to be."
In campus recruitment, the companies are hiring not for 2013-14, but for 2015-16, considering that the employees have to join and have to undergo training in the nine months. This might be difficult for the industry, as the new normal is that it gets a shorter notice. But the industry, which is resource oriented, is growing and 90 per cent of the people Nasscom asked said, they have plans to hire, he added.
The Nasscom HR 2013 Survey also indicates that given the business dynamics and just-in-time hiring, the higher campus hiring would be around 39 per cent while the higher just-in-time hiring of 57 per cent, while the equal hiring 4 per cent. Colleges would require to differentiate to attract the IT-Business Process Management (BPM) industry, it added.
The industry would continue to be a net hirer and most firms are to grow hiring, but at a slower rate, it added. The demand would be towards freshers with social, mobility, analytics and cloud (SMAC), engineering and leadership skills. Hiring is expected to grow across 90 per cent of the industry while 10 per cent would see no growth in hiring. One reason for the lower hiring could be the slower attrition levels, said Mittal.
According to Nasscom, attrition declined over FY 2011 to FY 2013, from 19 per cent to around 14 per cent in IT, engineering and R&D Services (ER&D) and Knowledge Process Outsourcing sectors. In BPM (voice) companies, the attrition levels have come down from 43 per cent to 33 per cent.
The organisation added that skill based recruitment, need for specialist skills in emerging technologies focus on domain competencies and blended hiring models will be few trends for coming year. While in 2000-2006 the demand for hiring was based on the technical skills of the candidate, from 2011 onwards, the trend has shifted with the companies increasing their demand at 40 per cent on soft skills and 20 per cent domain skills and only 20 per cent at technical skills.
Nasscom estimates that around 1.32 million engineering students to come out of their course this year. Last year, the top IT companies had recruited around 70,000-80,000 candidates. There are around 3 million employees in the industry, as on March, this year.
The domestic IT sector is also throwing a lucrative market open, and is expected to grow from current $16 billion to $50 billion by 2020, with an expected growth of 15-16 per cent in Rupee terms.
The IT and ITES Sector Skill Council of Nasscom has succeeded on developing detailed occupational standards across industry sub-sectors - IT Services, BPM, ER&D, and Software Products, it said. These occupational standards define unique job roles in these sub-sectors at entry, middle and senior level. Detailed content and career plans for these unique job roles are being defined as next steps.
Industry growth
Som Mittal said that Nasscom is confident that the industry would continue to grow at 12-14 per cent this year, as in the earlier forecast. The performance of the companies so far has been in line with this and the organisation might look at the numbers again after October. He added that Indian IT firms serving US also benefits US Corporates and it hopes that the few restrictive provisions in the immigration Bill in US could be removed through conciliation.
