Together, Telecom, IT and Banking are fuelling the hiring scenario in India

1. According to the latest Kelly Services Hiring Survey study, India Inc is likely to witness 10-15% increase in hiring in 2010-11. Your comments.

It could still be higher than that, considering the ground print we’ve seen in the last month or so. It could actually hit 20% especially with the telecom sector picking up and creating 1,00,000 new jobs. Tata, Idea and others are back in the hiring mode and it’s is believed that they’ll move to the tier 2 and tier cities to keep up with their hiring targets.

Interestingly, the Indian IT Industry is back on track with some of the IT majors having won number of global deals. This again is resulting in IT firms hiring in good numbers at junior level which in-turn will lead to lot of mid-level hiring, thus, creating traction in the market. In all, the IT industry has added about 90,000 jobs taking the number of total workforce to 2.3million.

Similarly, in the last 6-8 months even the banking sector has taken off and is seeing a rise in the hiring activity. Together, Telecom, IT and Banking are fuelling the hiring scenario in India.

2. India has been reporting the strongest hiring plans globally since the third quarter of 2008 despite the global recession. What would you attribute this to?

The Indian market never really had a recession but only went on a slowdown mode wherein employers sat quietly gearing for the revival. Thus, our economic scenario including the hiring activity has been better than the rest of the world.

Having said that, I’d like to stress on the fact that we’re still not on the same growth trajectory as we were in ‘06.

3. The study cites that Indian workforce is expected to receive the highest salary hike of 9.2 per cent in the Asia-Pacific region. Which sectors are likely to see the highest salary increase in the Indian market?

The FMCG sector will see the highest salary rise since this sector has been consistently hiring and our consumption has been rising as a country. It will see relatively higher increments than most others since it’s focused on direct consumption.

Others like IT, BFSI though are back on track but they were the first ones to get hit in the downturn period and thus are taking a measured approach.

4. According to the study, less than 30% of the Indian companies are stressing on performance based merit awards as against across the board hikes. How do you explain that?

In India, people still have higher comfort level with an assured amount and in a revival market employers can’t pull it through since once again employees are seeing more job options. So even it’s good for employers but in a reviving market, they can’t pull it through as it’ll lead to higher attrition. During recession, higher variable pay works as it becomes an employer’s market.

Performance based pay might become more acceptable after 2-3 years time period when Indian employers have enough data points to highlight the benefits and value in variable pay structure. Today, they don’t have enough data points to even convince an aspirant employee to take a higher variable pay.

5. Healthcare industry seems to be leading in the hiring game with 2,50,000 jobs in the sector this year. Do you anticipate this sector to become the biggest employer of the Indian private sector?

Education is the largest sector because of the fact that it’s government driven followed by Healthcare which too is divided between public and private sector. It could become one of the biggest employer but we don’t have enough data to conclude the same.

Also the growth that we’re seeing in BFSI, IT due to the liberalization and the high consumption trend gives these service sectors an edge.

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