"If I Could Hire A Lucky Person Or A Smart Person, I Would Hire A Lucky Person", Rishad Premji | Hear it From The Leaders If Skills Are Important OR Degrees

“I’m a big believer of luck. If I could hire a lucky person or a smart person, I would hire a lucky person. Luck plays an inordinately important role. There are a lot of brilliant people with great ideas, doing great work, and don’t reach where they deserve to reach,” Rishad Premji

The Indian job market is constantly changing, and so are the employer’s expectations. With the Indian market showcasing a strong recovery rate of 89%, there are countless opportunities opening across multiple domains. Owing to this, the employers are looking to recruit skilled candidates to fill up the job vacancies.

This has made it extremely crucial for job seekers to adopt new strategies to improve their chances of getting hired.

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Demand > Supply?

A report by Naukri.com recently stated that the hiring activity had surpassed the pre-pandemic level by 24%. Considering the immense potential of digitalization, the IT sector witnessed a growth of 79% as compared to the previous year. Further, the demand for skilled professionals was on a rise, witnessing a maximum increase of 110%.

Cognizant CEO Brian Humphries explained in an interview, “There is a demand level unlike anything we have ever seen in many, many years.”

The hiring trend shows that the Indian job market is undergoing a paradigm shift, resulting in the reversal of the Demand vs Supply inequality. This has opened up an array of opportunities for individuals taking their first step in the corporate world.

Due to the onset of digitalization, companies are able to get hold of candidates without the physical barrier, which has resulted in increased employer demands. Employers, today, look past your traditional graduate degree. They look for skilled candidates displaying exceptional technical and soft skills. Let us understand more about the hiring trends one should expect in the technologically driven world.

Hiring Trends 2022

The pandemic has brought about revolutionary changes in the traditional hiring pattern and has forced the employers to shift to virtual recruitment and onboarding practices. Here are some important points.

High Demand for Technically Sound Candidates

Almost every company in the world, regardless of the industry, is pushing toward digital business models. This has resulted in an ever-increasing demand for tech-driven candidates. Companies have started looking for quality employees who can fill the voids proficiently.

Due to the lack of skilled individuals, it is worthy to invest your time and efforts in upskilling yourself by undertaking value-added courses. A degree won’t guarantee you a job in the upcoming years.

Recruiters are onboarding new hires, considering the talent metrics as enticing factors of business culture to attract talent.

Familiarization with new hiring techniques

With the pandemic forcing firms to conduct online hiring processes, it seems that the virtual mode is not going anywhere. A hiring process mixing virtual and in-person processes is expected to become the new normal.

Big MNCs across various sectors have taken advantage of this situation by introducing new recruitment techniques. Firms have started conducting online aptitude tests, and AI-powered interview rounds, to further filter the candidates. These rounds are followed by HR interviews and other job role-specific rounds.

Swati Miglani, Assistant Manager Human Resource of Ernst and Young, says, “Virtual recruiting in the year 2020 and in 2021 has helped organizations as an add-on in the recruiting processes. It improves diversity hiring and recruits the best talent across the country without any geographical barrier.”

Prioritizing Internal Hiring and Employee Engagement

After investing a considerable amount of resources in the hiring process, and getting hands on some of the most capable individuals, firms often want to retain such employees for longer durations. Wipro Chairman Rishad Premji explained in an interview the firm’s priority towards the interviews. “The interview process which usually lasts 2 hours, at times lasts 9 hours! My father believed that it was important to get people who fit right.”

Firms have started shifting towards internal hiring, which involves promotions, lateral moves into new roles, and team transfers. The process shares a lot of advantages such as:

More engagement with and among the employees
Lower expenses
A faster hiring process

The firms, on the forefront, have improved employee engagement to facilitate retention. Cognizant CEO, Brian Humphries recently mentioned, “I spend an hour every day with five employees to hear them out. What’s on their minds, what’s working, what’s not, how do they feel about our communication, about our strategy, etcetera.” This has helped the firm in understanding its employees from a wider perspective, thus enhancing their engagement.

Focussing on DE&I

DE&I is an acronym that stands for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. WFH has facilitated the inclusion of employees from varied backgrounds and diverse ideologies under the same roof. It has further enabled firms to retain female talent, thereby, giving them the opportunity to rise through the ranks. Further, employers have started focusing more on DE&I, taking their job decisions based on a company's visible DE&I commitment.

“This isn't a new concept, but the combination of growing awareness, talent availability, and geographic flexibility will continue to emphasize the necessity of investing in the correct technologies to help companies establish more diverse teams,” Swati Miglani says.

The industry is witnessing revolutionary changes previously unheard of. The way employers are looking at the talent pool is also evolving. Candidates are expected to show a sweet mixture of technical and soft skills. As Mr. Rishad Premji explained, “A successful employee in today’s world is one who is open to collaborating, listening, learning, unlearning, and changing. A good candidate also needs to be empathetic, authentic, and vulnerable.”

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