1. How is the Indian temporary staffing Industry faring currently? Are there any major changes that this business has or is witnessing post recession?

Things are looking up post recession. The number of mandates has increased dramatically and more companies are open to the idea of temporary staffing. This has opened many doors.

2. Which sectors and roles are you seeing increasingly resort to temping and contractual staffing?

Jobs are being created across all sectors post recession. This growth in the economy has led the way to increase in the number of jobs which has had a positive impact in the temporary staffing. We are seeing clear increase in the Banking, FMCG, Telecom and Pharma, Health Care and Life Sciences sectors.

3. Do you see the Indian temporary staffing industry expanding geographically or is it largely a city-phenomenon?

30% of our temporary staff business comes from non-metros and this segment is growing fast. Temporary staffing is no longer a large city phenomenon.

4. Have the compensation trends in the temporary staffing industry witnessed any changes? Please elaborate.

The compensation trends in the temporary staffing industry are now in line with the permanent staffing. Right now, a growth of 7 -12% growth in the compensation is expected.

5. Globally, the temping industry is fairly big. But that doesn’t seem to be the case in the Indian job market. Your comments.

Temporary staffing as a concept is relatively new in India unlike in the western world where it is seven decades old. While the demand is growing, the lack of clear legal frame work and service tax burden are hampering the fast growth of the industry. Certain policy changes by the government will ensure the growth of temporary staffing, thus benefiting a huge unorganized work force in the country.

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.

Insight into assessment practices by organizations to understand employee potential and engagement

Simon Gluyas (Lead Consultant, Assessment and Employee Survey Practices, Asia Pacific, Kenexa, a 1,400 Employee-strong HR Organization)

1. What are the benefits of having regular employee assessments and surveys? Please enumerate?

Assessments help an employer in the selection process at the very initial stage and further on in developing the employee in the desired areas as well using their unique behavioural traits to increase productivity.

Surveys, on the other hand, play a more macro role and are done at the organisational level. They aid in determining employee engagement and creating a feedback mechanism to identify areas where more time and effort is needed.

At a fundamental level, both help in creating business intelligence by gathering and analysing relevant data and putting initiatives to better the overall performance. This enables in adding more strategic value to the business.

2. Would you say that there has been a significant increase/decrease in the assessment practice across sectors? Also, specify sectors and roles that have seen a significant change.

The assessment trend has surely gained momentum in the Indian market. There’s a growing realisation that it’s helping business by identifying employee potential and gaps, thereby driving performance. Some of the sectors that are rapidly adopting it include telecom, IT since they are labour-intensive and are also moving up the value chain in terms of their service offerings. These assessments are largely done for the entry-level and the mid-level employees and hence are done in large numbers.

Interestingly, even manufacturing sector which traditionally hasn’t used assessments for long is now realising the value in it. In fact, it’s not just using these assessments for their generalist, white collared employees but also their blue collared workers. Needless to say, the assessment techniques used are different for the blue-collared and white-collared workforce.

3. What are the changes witnessed in the employee assessment trends (esp. Indian market), post recession if any?

One key change that we have seen is the strong integration between the psychology aspect and the technology of assessments. Online testing is becoming a common form of assessments where employees are given simulation tests. The whole assessment process is becoming more interactive e.g. we now have a whole lot of dynamic elements thrown into the online tests like visual clips, ticker/scroll with new, industry-specific news. It’s getting a whole new flavour.

4. What are the assessment instruments/tools that have gained ground in the Indian market?

The Indian market is fairly mature and the assessments trend has been here for a while with many providers using several tools. The effectiveness and significance of these tools change with time. Hence, we’ve newer, better tools coming into practice as the industry is constantly evolving. Some of the popular instruments currently being used include Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), Thomas International etc.

1. HR departments outsourcing employee engagement activities to external event management firms seems to be a new phenomenon. Do you see any reasons for this new trend?

Outsourcing any kind of service is the future since people don’t have the time or energy even though they might have the inclination. HR functions like employee engagement being outsourced isn’t incredible.

We’re providing them a platform and making the execution part easier. Like any other event, an employee engagement initiative too gets broken down to a task list/check list and the process is similar. What really changes is the objectives and the audience. Agency like ours makes it easier for corporates to make it interesting and relevant.

E.g. If there’s a team-building initiative, a firm like ours can get in a celebrity like Harsha Bhogle who’s of great value as he draws analogies from the nation’s favourite sports team – the Indian Cricket team.

2. What value creation are you able to do for an organization in this regard? What is the level of involvement as an external vendor?

Our involvement starts right from the stage where the client briefs us and tells us the objectives. Once we understand the company values and do the audience/participant analysis, we strategize on the kind of employee initiative that can be taken. We serve as the think-tank and provide them with the most suitable options. Also, since we’re in the creative space, we are constantly able to provide out of the box solutions and thus, create a point of differentiation.

One of the interesting and innovative things that we just did recently was “What’s Cooking”, a cooking contest for the entire Marketing Team of HSBC Mumbai. This was a team-building event wherein we had ten teams which were allotted different dishes that they’d to prepare within stipulated time. The final output of all teams was then to be tasted by the head chef of the venue. The idea here was to get people to do something which many have seen but a few have attempted as that would increase the ‘desire to attempt’ factor.

3. Employee engagement was not even on the agenda for organizations the last financial year due to the slowdown. Are you anticipating any major promising changes in this regard this financial year? What are the sectors for which employee engagement will be a priority?

I do see organizations coming forward for employee engagement initiatives. Some of them are reactive in their approach and ask for just fill-in-the-gap task like procuring a specific resource e.g. bringing in a speaker etc. While some adopt a more structured, organized and proactive approach. Financial services is one of the leading sectors when we speak of employee engagement.

4. Organizations have gone the whole nine yards to engage their employees through various measures. So what is truly different now? Anything out of the box, truly unheard of activities that you are doing or have done for client organizations?

We are seeing financial services companies trying to move out of the run-of-the-mill efforts and innovate. Some of them are in fact resorting to having a lot of movie and IPL screenings in multiplexes for their employees.

The key to having effective initiatives is to treat employees like end-clients/consumers. If you do that, a lot can be achieved since many of those consumer engagement initiatives can be replicated for the employees too. How many firms even pause and think what really interests their employees and customize the initiatives to suit their preferences? Today, organizations need to look beyond just giving the monetary incentives and growth opportunities. They need to create an emotional hook for the employee.

E.g. How many firms that sponsor cricket have their brand ambassador come to the office and talk to the employees. If any of the firms that have Sachin Tendulkar as their ambassador bring him in & have him meet workforce, it would have such a great impact. Just to have someone like Tendulkar share a sense of pride for being the brand ambassador of that company would create a great sense of belonging/company loyalty within the employees.

5. As a service provider, what are the bottlenecks and issues that you face while planning and organizing employee engagement initiatives?

Biggest bottleneck is the approach and the attitude of organizations. It’s more reactive than proactive. We don’t talk of employee delight, the “going the extra mile” attitude is missing. You need to give an individual touch to employees. Needless to say it’s easier said than done esp. in the case of large companies where logistics might pose a challenge. However, if you develop unit heads and have them represent the company ethics/values which flow top-down then the goal is not as hard to achieve. Tata is the best example in this.

This year retention would not be a huge challenge, but if the upturn sustains then the next year would see increased incidence of attrition

Ashok Reddy, Managing Director, TeamLease Services

1. The last Teamlease employment outlook report for the Jan-Mar ’10 quarter shows a significant attrition trend across sectors and cities esp. the metros. What would you attribute this to?

In the downturn, people stayed in a job they had rather than explore external opportunities and risk their career. Now that the job market has started to see an upturn with companies coming back to hire people are encouraged to move out from their current jobs and take up other opportunities.

Also, the opening of the job market puts the element of negotiating for salaries back in the hands of the candidates/employees and this leads to attrition.

2. If we look at sector-specific attrition trend, we have Infrastructure topping the list, which isn’t the usual. How would you reason this?

Infrastructure is getting a huge fillip by virtue of available funds and also the government focus. India has a long way to go on the infrastructure front and by virtue of the fact that it is a relatively new industry, talent is limited. A lot of poaching is being witnessed in this sector and hence the increased attrition.

3. We have seen the regional and the sectoral trend of attrition, what about the roles and levels that are witnessing the trend? Is the attrition confined to certain functions and employee level?

At this point in time the market recovery is across industry, across locations and across levels and hence the opportunities are widespread leading to a more broad based demand and attrition. It is certainly not confined to any specific function or position.

4. What retention measures and initiatives are you seeing employers use? Anything interesting and out of the box?

Attrition is not something that can be eliminated; it is something that companies learn to live with. However, multiple actions can be taken to reduce the incidence of attrition and that is directed towards paying for performance, variable incentives, role and responsibility play, ESOPs etc.

5. Prior to the recession, compensation was the biggest puller and used heavily as a retention tool. Would that continue to be the case?

Compensation would be a key retention tool, but drive is to make it a combination of fixed and variable. The latter would ensure organizations are rewarding people for performance and ensuring they eat what they kill.

6. Do you see/anticipate retention being a major challenge for this year or is it likely to be an employer’s market as some industry experts are suggesting?

Demand has started to come back into the market, but it still is with cautious optimism. Corporates want to see how the current upturn plays itself out before taking a more long term decision around headcounts and permanency. Think this year would not be a huge challenge on retention, but if the upturn sustains then the next year would see increased incidence of attrition.

Issue today and tomorrow is that organizations need to transform from a uni-culture setup to a true multi-culture setup

Anu Parthasarathy, CEO, Global Executive Talent (GET), an executive search firm, specializing in C-level recruitment and transformational leadership.

1. What would you say are the key leadership challenges that the Indian market faces?
The last two decades have been dominated by the growth of offshore services centers in India. This led to a significant talent pool moving into the IT (Information Technology) and ITeS (IT Enabled Services-BPO/KPO) industries. India leads in availability of leadership talent in the delivery of multi-site, multi-domain offshore services.

However, this decade and the next are about the growth of domestic Indian market at an unprecedented scale (e.g. Telecom, Automobile). This demands leadership talent which has done large scale manufacturing, distribution, customer service etc. This is lacking in the experience profile of most senior executives in the industry who have “grown” during the slow growth, low volume phase of the economy.
Plus, today Indian companies have to think global as they face fierce competition for the market from Chinese, Korean, Japanese, American companies. This again demands business leaders who have operated in the global market place and built businesses perhaps without the backing of a strong brand.

2. What are the best ways of meeting the above challenges? Any effective practices/ methods that Indian organizations are using to meet these challenges?
Indian organizations have taken a three pronged approach to addressing the above challenges:

Approach 1 – Hire Indians who have worked abroad and are interested in coming back. There is a tremendous amount of talent that India lost to virtually every part of the world including Africa and Middle East besides North America, Asia-Pac and Europe. Many from this pool have held leadership positions with global companies and have the experience that India needs. So this is an attractive option. This has its own challenges like the inability of even these Indians to adjust back culturally into Indian work environment. Another is the family’s resistance to move back and settle down in the non-cosmopolitan metros.

Approach 2 – Hire expat managers – Airline industry, Telecom industry and now even Automobile industry are trying this out. Here the challenges we discussed earlier for returning Indians gets multiplied manifold. Moreover, when times turn very difficult like the last quarter of 2008, expats prefer to pack their bags and move as the compensation, perks and stock values are not attractive enough.

Approach 3 – Throw the existing leadership talent into the expanded roles and hope that they would come through. They are sent for short term stints in partner companies and for Executive Programs in premier business schools like Harvard so that the exposure would raise their bars and help them understand the context of what is demanded of them.

3. Dearth of multi-cultural, global managers seems to be one of the top HR issues for the Indian market. What are your observations?
This I feel is a challenge across the world and not just with India. Most American managers only understand and appreciate the American corporate culture. Same is true for the Europeans, Japanese and South Koreans. And likewise, the Indian managers understand and work in the Indian corporate culture very well!

Issue today and tomorrow is that organizations need to transform from a uni-culture setup to a true multi-culture setup by adapting and absorbing the best of many corporate cultures so that people who work for them in different parts of the world feel an equal sense of belonging.

4. What are the burning trends vis-à-vis Top-level talent development and coaching? How do you see Indian employers mentoring their senior managers and empowering them to take on larger roles?

One major issue is that succession planning is completely non-existent in most companies. Also there is severe reluctance to hire laterally at senior levels. Even where it is done, the executive faces resistance from rank and file and is ejected out like a foreign body. These two issues get compounded during high growth times and that is what we are seeing today in India. These two issues are very addressable through coaching. But Indian managers resist one-on-one coaching. They are open to training programs and management courses always. But often what is needed is one-on-one coaching and this practice is not very popular in India. This needs to change.

Many corporates, especially the larger ones like Wipro, Tatas, Infosys have their own leadership development schools. Significant investment has gone into this and has resulted in these companies successfully generating leadership talent in-house. But the smaller and mid-size companies do face an uphill task. One approach would be for these companies to build a strong board of advisors who can mentor, coach and work with senior executives on a regular basis.