The Times of India Companies look to hire experienced talent...
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Companies look to hire experienced talent

Samidha Sharma, TNN | Sep 26, 2013, 01.19AM IST 

MUMBAI: Cutting back on hiring entry- and junior-level staff, Indian companies are increasingly looking to hire experienced professionals who would hit the ground running from day one, says a report by a recruitment firm shared exclusively with TOI. Overall, it found an improvement in business sentiment, predicting that net business outlook will improve by 3% in the next six months.

The half-yearly report forecasting hiring trends from October 2013 to March 2014 said engineering as a function remains in demand, especially for the talent coming from tier II and tier III cities like Allahabad, Bareilly, Ludhiana, Ranchi and Warangal. Businesses which are sensitive to the political-economic fallout of the impending general elections are the ones that are most likely to go slow on hiring. The bright spots on the jobs chart are the consumer goods, retail, pharma and healthcare sectors, which are expected to register increased hiring over the next six months. 

"The FMCG industry is not witnessing any slowdown in hiring. Despite the tough macro-economic conditions, we are among the few sectors that have been reporting good growth quarter-on-quarter. So, hiring continues at our organization. As we expand our rural footprint, we are constantly adding numbers in the rural markets," said HR V Krishnan, executive VP at Dabur. The maker of Vatika hair oil and Real juices added around 1,000 employees for its rural expansion over the past one year.

The Teamlease report said geographically, states of Gujarat and Karnataka will see employment and business sentiment move up. The coming six months will witness a 4% increase in middle-level hiring, a trend that continues from the previous half of the fiscal.

"There is cost involved in training and nurturing entry-level staff and keeping in mind the current circumstances, it's not the best time to build bench strength," said Sunil Goel, MD GlobalHunt, an executive search firm.

Engineering remained the most sought-after function in terms of hiring intent as expressed by employers. Sales, marketing, customer service will gain 2% while administration/HR/office services will see an increase of a percentage point from the previous six months. The IT sector is expected to witness a drop of 3% in hiring.

Sangeeta Lala, senior VP & co-founder at Team Lease Services, said, "The IT industry will see a steep drop of 6% in hiring sentiment. However, the ITeS (BPOs and calls centres) space will see a marginal dip of 2%. Along with IT, manufacturing and engineering will also see themselves in the red." HR managers though are looking at acquiring and nurturing talent, the report said.