A survey done across 500 tech companies in India says the industry will witness shrinkage in hiring. In addition, there will also be layoffs during the next two quarters from October 2017 to March 2018.
According to Experis IT Employment Outlook released on Tuesday, a majority of the employers would want to hire trained IT graduates and upskilled employees.
Manmeet Singh, president at Experis, ManpowerGroup India, said: “Today technologies continue to rapidly reshape the business landscape. A rise in new enabling technologies, such as software as a service (SaaS) offerings, cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, artificial intelligence’s (AI) unprecedented speed, accuracy and cost efficiency is significant to maintain the competitive edge, which are driving businesses now. With this ongoing transformation, these technologies bring underlying technical complexity that spurs the demand for young professionals resulting in talent refresh cycle in the Indian IT industry that would continue for the next two years.’’
The ManpowerGroup study stated that organisations prefer to up skill the existing workforce to thrive in the glaringly intensive competitive environment.
In an era of external uncertainty, what is more important is that companies should continue on the path of transforming their organisations’ engagement models, delivery capabilities and go-to market approach to suit the fast-changing needs of digital transformation.
“Working towards this change will be challenging but it will set up the organisation for sustainable high performance while embracing the digital future,”’ Singh added.
AG Rao, managing director of ManpowerGroup India said, “India is at the cusp of a digital transformation. The advent of automation is expected to impact majority of companies in India today. India’s IT employers are cautious about their hiring plans in the October-March time frame.” Staying ahead of the technological curve has become a new survival norm in the digital world where up skilling is the key.’’
The IT sector will continue to hire for newer skills in areas of automation and artificial intelligence, he said.
With digital and technology playing a key role in all processes, systems and methods, the coming months will see an adoption of HR processes where majority of the conversations in India will be around the integration of people and technology, Rao added.
A supply side check conducted by Financial Chronicle confirmed the trend. “Hiring requirements (across all jobs) from leading IT firms have come down drastically. From our demand analysis, it is clear that companies won’t be adding much people in the coming few quarters. They are suddenly going through a transition or a transformation,” said BS Murthy, a leading tech recruiter in Bangalore.
Avinash Vashistha, chairman and MD at offshore advisory Tholons, said, “Indian tech firms are already facing a noticeable decline in client addition, especially in terms of large, multi geography deals. Clients are increasingly demanding for automation for their existing projects, therefore tech firms are left with no choice but go digital in a big way. Client addition and employee addition are directly linked.”
According to Siddharth Pai, an independent industry observer based in Bangalore, protectionism (in client geographies) related issues are giving Indian tech players additional pressures on client addition and employee addition.
