The corporate workforce has altered the traditional ways of doing business across different sectors due to Covid-19. A recent study by a talent-solutions provider CareerNet — Present Hiring Outlook in India and the Future of Work — cites that eight out of ten employers are actively hiring, while only 6 per cent of the employers haven’t re-started hiring yet.
The report suggests that 61 per cent of large enterprises anticipate filling more than 500 positions, 45 per cent of mid-sized companies expect to fill between 100 and 500 positions, and 61 per cent of small businesses forecast to fill less than 50 positions in the year 2021.
Domains and roles
Employers in the banking, e-commerce, insurance and financial services, and IT/ITeS sectors expect their hiring numbers to be higher as compared with those in other sectors. Among cities, Hyderabad topped the list of employment, with 100 per cent of respondents saying that they were actively hiring while it was 80 per cent in Bengaluru.
The culture of remote working has instigated the significance of functional skills over soft skills while evaluating candidates. Three out of four employers consider functional skills to be extremely important, less than a half of them consider soft skills to be extremely important. Additionally, across industry verticals, there’s a significant demand for technology-based talent. The rapid adoption of digitisation by companies and growing consumption of technology amid the pandemic has led to a growth in the demand for coders, programmers, and software developers, with 69 per cent of recruiters looking for technology-based talent.
Two out of three employers are seeking candidates with good communication skills and 50 per cent of them rate interpersonal skills on top while assessing candidates. Other in-demand soft skills are self-discipline, multi-tasking, time management, and work-life balance.
“A few months into 2021 got us thinking about the present hiring outlook of employers in India. We did this study to gather market insights about the present hiring trends and the evolving work model,” said Anshuman Das, CEO and Co-Founder, CareerNet. “The study witnessed participation from over 80 leaders in the human resources and talent acquisition space and over 1,600 employees from various organisations. The report reveals some interesting insights. The hiring momentum has accelerated and companies are actively hiring. For colleges and universities, virtual hiring is going to be the norm. There is a positive outlook towards gig/contractual/freelance hiring” he added.
Campus hiring
While 43 per cent of small companies (up to 500 employees) were not planning to hire from campuses this year, 59 per cent of mid-sized companies (501-5,000 employees) and 64 per cent of the large enterprises (5,001-plus employees) were planning to recruit campus talent, found the study conducted across 80 HR leaders and over 1,600 employees from various enterprises.
IT/ITES, banking, and pharmaceuticals are some of the sectors that are going to move ahead with virtual campus hiring this year. Among the organisations that are planning to lead with campus hiring, 47 per cent expect hiring for less than 50 positions while 12 per cent predict between 51 and 100 positions.
Employee attrition
One in four employers is witnessing their employee attrition rate to be either at an all-time high or higher than the quarter ended in Dec ’20. One in three organisations is experiencing either the same rate or a higher rate of employee attritions as compared with the year ended in December 20. 22 per cent of the employers stated that their employee attrition rate is at an all-time low. From the employees’ point of view, eight out of ten working professionals across the country are considering changing their jobs this year.