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IT Sector Pushing For Hiring Women In Leadership Roles: AVSAR HR

In an interview with BW People, Navneet Singh, Founder, and CEO - AVSAR HR Services talks about the job market, job roles in demand, hiring and diversity in hiring

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In an interview with BW People, Navneet Singh, Founder, and CEO - AVSAR HR Services talks about the job market, job roles in demand, hiring and diversity in hiring. 

What future trends do you expect to come up in recruitment?

The current job market is candidate-driven. Instead of us picking up the candidates with the right talent, talent picks us. And it has brought a major shift in recruiting paradigm. Recruitment Marketing has come into the picture. Companies, today, need to work upon its Employee Value Proposition as opposed to its general corporate Brand Reputation. Then there are Recruitment Automation Tools which are going to change the HR industry at a never imagined rate. Artificial Intelligence is going to play a smarter role in areas like employee attrition, background verification, anomaly detection, etc.

Not only this, AI platforms are such brilliant that they can detect the changes in the tone of current employees and can single them out who may be looking out for “exit door”. AI Recruiters are soon going to take charge which would automate scheduling interviews, answer their questions in real time and much more. In fact, some companies have already started implementing them. 

We will also see diversity hiring pop-up in 2019. Gone are the days when gender, ethnicity, geography, and age were considered an important factor in hiring. Also, Gen Z will find their place in the workforce. 

What is the current Job Market Scenario? What sectors and industries are looking good for hiring?

If we deep dive into India’s jobs market, high income-inequality bothers us to a considerable extent. Indian economy is 5th largest in the world but a quarter of its population is in extreme or moderate poverty. A monthly income of Rs. 50,000 and above puts an Indian worker in the top 1 percent bracket. 

But it has seen massive growth in sectors like Infrastructure, Financial Services, Technology, Automotive and Healthcare which is expected to become $280 billion Market by 2020! 

Divisions like AI, Machine Learning, Big Data, and Cyber Security would be brimming with new job openings. Not to forget the E-commerce and Telecom sectors, which are currently having the most lucrative opportunities.

What skills are generally in demand? How difficult is it to find candidates meeting the skill set requirements?

The skills which would be more requested for in 2019 would be Cloud Computing, Artificial Intelligence, Mobile Application Development, Social Media Marketing, Business Analysis, Data Sciences, Software testing, etc. The list continues. But the interesting thing is technological skills dominate the list. And the demand for corporate communication and social media marketing skills suggest companies look for new ways to stand out and tell their stories. 

The process of recruitment can face breakdown at any stage. Attracting the qualified candidates, reasonable expectations, solid pay, sealing the deal with the top choice are some of the stages which can be quite vulnerable because they require filtration. But having a formal vetting process in place, taking time to hire, checking candidate’s online behavior can vouch for appropriate candidate selection.

How is the hiring at the junior, mid and senior level? What level is the hardest to switch jobs?

Hiring Senior Executive employees is more tedious and complex than hiring juniors because we have to deal with a smaller pool of candidates. Recruiters struggle to get sufficient applications. Also, a lot of people leave their jobs because of the bad manager or senior team director, no matter how you try to gloss over the crappy work environment with higher pay and perks. All of these factors need to be taken into consideration.

Lower level roles are easier to fill in, that too, in a shorter amount of time. They have their own challenges. We would find a sea of these candidates who all look the same. But we face challenges of competitive salaries and employee benefits here as well, though small. Larger corporation outguns smaller firms here.

Has diversity in hiring been improving lately? Is maternity bill a barrier for women hiring?

Yes, there has been a rising demand in the last six months for hiring physically challenged people, senior citizens, and LGBT community members. Similarly, there has been a push in the IT sector for hiring and giving opportunities to women in leadership roles beyond R&D, production, project, etc. The overall women’s representation at the 100 best companies has been steadily rising, reaching over 31 percent in 2018 from 25 percent in 2016.

The Maternity (Amendment) bill 2017, which extended the maternity leave from 12 to 26 weeks for employees in private sector, gave women a lot of protections and was hailed as “step-forward” for 1.8 million Indian women.

But this has hit the working women hard. A lot many employers now prefer hiring male candidates as employees because they have to bear the additional costs of paid maternity leave. Nearly 35 percent of SME’s founders see the impact of the Act as negative on both costs and profitability. Hence, businesses are shirking from hiring women workers because of associated costs. 




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jobs job market hiring Maternity Bill skills diversity

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