The Covid-19 pandemic changed the way India Inc hires. Hiring processes have gone digital. A plethora of untapped talent has emerged, especially from cities that had previously been ignored. Now hiring is not limited to a specific area, not even campuses. Experts believe that the trend of hiring through online exams would pick up and replace campus-based hiring which allows students from only specific colleges to be part of the big firms.
Remote hiring means more candidates belonging to tier 2 and 3 cities can take part in the recruitment process which was earlier difficult due to geographical boundaries. This will soon be true for colleges too.
Tech companies are steadily shifting away from campus-based recruitments and opting for nationwide qualifiers for their new hires. For instance, TCS launched the ‘TCS National Qualifier Test (NQT)’, an online qualifier test for hiring freshers. The programming and cognitive skills of the candidates are evaluated in these qualifiers. Due to its growing popularity, other tech companies also hire candidates based on their NQT scores.
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Similarly, Infosys launched the ‘Infosys Certification Exam’, a qualifier test that allows freshers to apply for jobs with Infosys. With two of the biggest IT firms in India opting for such qualifier tests, the other tech firms are bound to follow suit in 2022.
“This trend is expected to continue in the coming years mainly due to two factors – the ability to discover a diverse set of talents and fresher hiring process becomes faster and cost-effective,” said Abhimanyu Saxena, Co-Founder, Scaler & InterviewBit.
Remote hiring means more candidates belonging to tier 2 and 3 cities can take part in the recruitment process which was earlier difficult due to geographical boundaries. “Currently, more than 20 lakh of India’s workforce from engineering, IT, R&D and BPM are from the top 15 tier 2 cities, according to a study conducted by Zinnov,” adds Saxena.
Due to the shift to online tests open for all, the talent force is likely to see diversity, equality, and inclusion at a higher rate at all levels of an organization, said Vikas Singhania, CEO, TradeSmart.
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He also added that not just in terms of new talent, companies also need to think about internal reskilling and upskilling programmes as per market and changing trends. “This can ensure internal mobility leading to individual growth professionally thereby ensuring enhanced retention,” he said.
In 2021, investments in upskilling saw an 18 to 25 per cent increase. Some of the sectors where these investments have gone up are IT, e-commerce, logistics, MFSI, pharma, edtech, industrial engineering among others. Companies are not only up-skilling for technical/domain-specific skill sets but also for soft/communication/behavioural skills.
In 2022, investments in upskilling are expected to grow by 12-15 per cent, says Neeti Sharma, President, and Co-Founder, TeamLease. “The pandemic has taught employers the importance of having a multi-skilled workforce with interchangeable skills and hence the efforts towards up-skilling will be stronger in the coming years,” said Sharma.
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