SMS powers the job market

Check your inbox just in case the ping means bingo

Technology has become a boon for the ITeS/BPO industry the second time over. The industry emerged in the first place because the telecom revolution allowed services to be remotely delivered.

The second time around, technology has helped this people industry deliver exponential growth by making it possible for it to recruit large numbers also at an exponential rate.

The recruitment has in fact gone ahead of the top line growth rate of the industry as high growth has been more than matched by higher attrition. Technology has helped in not just speeding up recruitment but also updating data almost at real time in HR firms' data bases, thus making the recruitment process more effective, faster and efficient.

HR industry old timers like to recall the tale of the fortunate but unfortunate fellow in the days of snail mail, the eighties to be precise, when he was lucky enough to get a job but not lucky enough to remain alive by the time his letter of appointment was delivered at his address.

Says Shiv Aggarwal, CEO of ABC Consultants, "The person who recommended the name had done so when the target candidate had been alive, a few weeks prior to his demise."

The first major change was the advent of email as a means of communication. This helped but only up to a point. Email is great but has a shortcoming. Till a candidate checks his/her mail he will not know that a recruiter is trying to get in touch.

To get around the problem MeritTrac, an HR firm, has come out with a solution. It has created a service "" SMSTrac "" in which the SMS, delivered by the mobile phone, plays a key role, says director and founding partner Madan Padaki.

Candidates looking for jobs post their CVs in the MeritTrac data base and update it whenever they like by accessing their CVs through a password or resume key. MeritTrac sends SMS to candidates when they have a job in hand for the right candidates.

The candidate then sends an SMS to SMSTrac with the job code, resume location and resume key. The resume is then extracted and mailed to the recruiter.

And when the recruiter or MeritTrac wants to get in touch with candidate, they send him/her an email, an SMS and thereafter as the need arises, a confirmatory communication by snail mail. All you need to do is to keep your connection recharged. Even that has become a non-issue in the age of lifelong free incoming calls and SMS.