Getting it right the first time

TRENDS: IT and ITeS companies polish their recruitment strategies to attract talent that makes a better cultural fit.

A few years ago, HCL Technologies conducted campus placements armed with no more than a PowerPoint presentation on the company profile and job roles. Now, even before placement season begins, it starts thinking up new ideas, identifying key differentiators, creating storyboards, and lining up brand ambassadors.

D K Srivastava, the company's senior vice-president for corporate human resources, says communication spends have gone up considerably: "Communication is now all about making the right point about the company." To tap the limited talent pool, IT and ITeS companies have woken up to a whole new world of recruitment where research and development and trial and errors abound.

In 2006-07 IT and ITeS firms are set to hire 380,000 people, 200,000 of them by the latter. This is a headcount growth of 35 per cent over the previous year, and NASSCOM estimates that in 2007-08 another 400,000 will be needed. Says Aniruddh Limaye, HR head of WNS, on the challenges of recruitment: "Companies have to identify four main issues in recruitment: how to reach out to the talent market; cost-effective ways to reach out; how to deploy technology effectively; and how to evolve testing and hiring methodologies to improve the selection ratio."

Concerned technology firms are increasingly searching for new ways of hiring. One ploy is to "showcase" employees as brand ambassadors during campus placements. Sapient Technologies believes in growing role models by creating a culture that rewards and recognises people. "These role models are the face of the company and are committed to helping build it by bringing in like-minded people," explains Ashutosh Sinha, senior manager, recruitment at Sapient.

Even WNS and HCL maintain that alumni participation helps candidates identify with the professionals. HCL even showcases employee success stories as part of its corporate film, besides focusing on career growth paths. "We give students an in-depth understanding of our future outlook," says Srivastava.

For Limaye, the next step is to employ technology to make hiring processes more efficient: "Recruitment is time consuming, and hence it's imperative to develop various tests based on knowledge and skills to minimise the need for interviewing." Sapient, too, plans to move towards an interactive medium. Sinha says that devices such as job boards play an important role in sourcing talent. Sapient runs a proactive research team in HR which helps it to find passive job seekers. "Recruitment strategies are becoming extremely focused. Since we know we require technical expertise with specific skill sets, sourcing talent is highly specialised," he says.

Obtaining talent with better cultural fit is one of WNS' prime goals, and the company constantly observes employees to understand what drives them. "We then look for similar if not the same skill sets," explains Limaye.

From corporate films to brand ambassadors to employing new technology has increased spends on recruitment considerably. Anita Ramachandran, director, Cerebrus Consultants, confirms that hiring costs in IT and ITeS have soared, especially at the entry and junior levels, where multiple channels are used. "Recruitment at the 0-2 years level is an ongoing process because of high turnover, and it needs to be topped up at all times," she notes.

As companies look at more colleges in more cities (even tier-1 and tier-2 cities), communication spends are bound to go up. "In placement season, companies like TCS and Wipro visit more than 100 colleges," explains Ramachandran, adding that IT and ITeS firms are trying to reduce hiring costs by circumventing placement companies. "This can prove economical in the long run in terms of overall hiring costs," she says.

Agrees Sinha: "Increasingly, companies are focusing on striking a fine balance between the number of hires made and the cost incurred in the process." Optimising recruitment cost is one of IT and ITeS firms' prime concerns. At the campus levels, WNS actively participates in college fests, sponsors competitions, and works with NGOs to build visibility. "Obviously the cost per hire has gone up but only till you don't get dividends out of it," Limaye adds.

Being people-intensive, IT and ITeS companies are trying to improve their recruitment ratio by aiming for a better fit. As Ramachandran puts it, "At campus level, companies are trying to identify a certain level of quality in order to build a talent pool."