Skill gap a perennial issue

Globally, Randstad is the second largest HR services company that has the supply to meet almost any demand. Through over 4,000 locations in around 40 countries, it supplies temporary workers for small assignments as well as large-scale deployments. It also offers permanent placement and HR project management and consultancy services. In India, Randstad offers the broadest HR services portfolio ranging from staffing, search, selection, HR solutions and in-house services. Moorthy K Uppaluri, CEO – India & Sri Lanka, Randstad, shares his views with FC about the industry, the Indian potential and the way forward. Excerpts:

There was positive sentiment overall in the job market after the new central government took over. Has the sentiment translated into reality? If so, is it across sectors or in specific industries?

The new government has offered a renewed sense of optimism creating a spurt in the job market. The recently announced labour reforms have hit the right chord. This is indeed a welcome move and a catalyst for creating a conducive environment for growth, leading to significant job creation in the country, by simplifying employment laws and regulations.

Though these key initiatives and reforms are yet to show concrete results, they are definitely moving on the right track, gathering pace through this year and are expected to accelerate through 2016, making India job ready. This will have a positive impact on the job market and a cascading effect across sectors.

With the ‘make in India’ initiative gathering momentum, sectors like manufacturing, infrastructure and energy will come up. The other top hiring sectors in 2015 will be IT/ITeS, pharma and healthcare, e-commerce, travel and hospitality and BFSI.

The other side of increased recruitment is attrition; how much has it increased across major sectors? What are the main reasons for employee churn beyond monetary benefits?

Given that India has a large young workforce, the country also experiences low job loyalty causing large-scale job shifts. Also, the revitalised economy has led to more job opportunities resulting in higher attrition rates, and this in turn has impacted net employee addition numbers.

According to a recent Randstad survey, a majority of the Indian workforce will consider a job change in the next 12 months to pursue better career growth, strong learning and development opportunities. With the economy looking up, emerging sectors like e-commerce, analytics, mobility and cloud computing are banking on mature industries for recruiting top talent across all levels. This in turn has resulted in the creation of more jobs in mature sectors as well. The intention of the workforce towards large-scale job shifts to leverage these increased opportunities is evident. However, it is interesting to see that Indian employees are prioritising key areas of their job rather than solely relying on monetary benefits.

Last year, the highest overall attrition rate across all industries was seen in the ITeS and services sectors at around 30 per cent, with most exits happening at the bottom of the pyramid. This was followed by the IT sector that hit 20 per cent and then by pharma and consumer goods industries. The lowest attrition rate was in the logistics sector at around 10.5 per cent, followed by the energy sector.

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https://www.mydigitalfc.com/views/skill-gap-perennial-issue-285