Social media to play a key role in hiring

As we have entered another year, the IT industry is abuzz with speculations and predictions about the hiring scene and what all are in stock for the It professionals in the new year. In this interaction with Sudhakaran, UST Global COO Arun Narayanan gives a glimpse of what would be the hiring scene like in 2011. Read on:

After a period of recession, now things are apparently getting back to normalcy. In this backdrop, what are your expectations for 2011?

UST is poised for a revenue growth of around 40 per cent in 2011. A large part of this would be managed services and outcome-based deals. Most of these are long-term deals and this provides more predictability in terms of revenue and talent needs.

What was the pattern of hiring and talent acquisition in 2010 in your view? Do you think in the year 2011 there will be a substantial, increase in the job opportunities in the IT-BPO sector in the country?

The first quarter of 2010 was slow for most companies. The hiring picked up steam in Q2. According to NASSCOM, the IT industry in India added about 90,000 jobs in FY10. The Indian IT-BPO industry is estimated to aggregate revenues of US$ 73.1 billion in 2010, employing close to 2 million people, posting a growth of 5.4 per cent over 2009.

We feel there will be significant increase in opportunities. In 2011, campuses in India will produce around 600,000 people who aspire to join IT sector. Campus hiring will be very active and the top 15-20 per cent will be hired by the premium IT companies.

I would advise new graduates to hone up their communication and analytical skills to qualify to be in this elite group.

There will be significant demand for experienced people who can develop game-changing projects for clients. People who understand the business processes as well as technology will be sought after the most. There will be literally a war for such talent among the companies.

IT service companies are also looking at countries like Philippines for untapped source of talent.

What will be the hiring plans for 2011 for UST Global?

We plan to hire around 3000 people this year, in line with our growth plans. Approximately 1200 people would come in through our internal referral program. For the first time we are leveraging social media — we expect to hire another 600 people though this channel. The remaining 1200 would be hired from the campuses across India, USA and Philippines.

In the new era of multi-generational teams, does referral program stand a chance?

Yes, of course. Referral programs are more relevant today than ever before. The only difference is that referrals will happen through new channels, such as social media.

The new generation work force is very savvy on social media such as Facebook, Orkut and LinkedIn. They also use these to discover and share career opportunities. It is up to the companies to ensure that employees are engaged enough to leverage such social media for referral opportunities.

In the road ahead, how do companies nurture and manage multi-generational teams?

New generation workforce demands freedom and creative space. That's why we spot and develop talent in a boundary-less manner.

We take the effort to understand what different generations of work force are looking for. I am an advocate for the concept of reverse mentoring — the Y generation people mentor the leaders of the company on their dreams, ambitions and way of working!

Our idea management system, Eureka, is an example for this. We encourage our associates at all levels to post ideas for the benefit of the organization and for our clients. This democratic approach drives far more extensive innovation than traditional R&D techniques.



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In the job of a techie, climbing the pyramid of career hierarchy seems to be a major issue, because of the lack of opportunities in the top, middle level, compared to the entry level. On the other hand, the 40-plus generation may find it difficult to manage their life with the entry-level job profile, creating a sense of uncertainty and insecurity among them. How do you look at this issue?

The problem starts when we look only at the levels of designations. The moment we start focusing on the roles, the problems vanish. A person can be a junior developer, but could play the most vital role in designing a mission-critical application for a Global 100 client. We provide a lot of programs to accelerate the development of talented individuals.

My favorite parallel is the flight simulator, which cuts down the training time of pilots exponentially. These flight simulations help pilots to understand and navigate through a variety of situations that mirror real life.

In our accelerated talent development boot camps, we do exactly the same thing. We capture the learning scenarios from the project floor and take people through them. This opens up new roles and opportunities for people. Fortunately our clients are also very supportive of these programs.

Thought leadership has no levels or limits. It is all in one’s head!

I would recommend the book 'Multipliers' written by Liz Wiseman and Greg McKeown for all leaders of the IT industry. It tells you clearly how to get the best out of all of your associates, regardless of the level they are in.

In the increasing infrastructure and resource cost, what are the other options for IT industry to look into?

As in any industry, we need to keep up with the rapidly changing requirements of customers and continuously modify our portfolio of offerings according to demand. We got to be flexible and nimble.

One very important aspect is how the organization manages the resource pyramid. The resource pyramid represents the entire workforce of the organization, categorized according to skills and years of experience. Depending on the specific skill set, the cost of a resource typically goes up with the number of years of experience.

A well-balanced resource mix optimizes your costs, without compromise in the quality of delivery and productivity. An accelerated talent development program could enable organizations to identify their high potential talent, and develop them through specialized training/exposure, thus flattening out the resource pyramid.

According to you how can enterprises leverage remote workforce and have a distributed delivery model to avoid Capex and Opex cost? How can companies tap into that segment of the workforce?

There are a number of options today for companies looking to cut the costs of operation. These involve the intelligent use of technology and good resource planning. In terms of technology, the cloud infrastructure is a cost-effective, scalable, and reliable option. With minimal investment on hardware and software, an organization can leverage remote workforce like never before.

Secondly, organizations are beginning to look at alternative pools of talent, such as retirees, housewives and the student community. Giving these employees the option to work from home, or even part-time, is a great way to harness their talent and cut down your costs. Companies should experiment with such models and decide on what works and what doesn’t.

Third is the classic method of controlling costs — outsourcing! Subcontracting certain parts of projects to firms dealing in niche skills would eliminate a lot of overheads and significantly reduce cost of operation.

What is the level of planning and rigor required for an organization to shape a successful talent strategy?

Most organizations today speak of putting the customer first, but the talk doesn’t always translate into action. At UST Global, we have a client-centric approach, whereby we build long-lasting relationships with each of our clients.

Rather than a service provider-buyer relationship, we are looking to develop strategic partnerships. This gives us longer term visibility to plan ahead for talent acquisition.

I would summarize the essentials of talent strategy into five points:

a. Have strategic relationships with the clients

b. Have regular talent planning and review sessions with the clients

c. Good talent models that could predict requirements to a fair degree of accuracy

d. Adoption of standard supply chain management practices

e. Have the reputation for attracting and retaining top talent

Have you seen any shift in customer expectations post recession and how does it impact the work force?

Since the recession, there has been a change in priorities for most customers and each dollar they spend is watched more closely. There is more emphasis on customization of services, according to the specific needs of each client.

The ‘lights on’ projects remain active, but the customer wants them running with no increase in budget. They have increased budgets for game changers: projects that bring in exponentially more revenues, market share or margins.

People who understand the business of the client as well as technology will thrive in 2011 and beyond!