Vineet Nayar to bat for more local jobs at WEF

BANGALORE, INDIA: At the World Economic Forum (WEF) 2012, HCL Technologies vice-chairman and chief executive officer, Vineet Nayar, will take up the cause of creating new local jobs across world markets.

After the second quarter results announcement on Tuesday, he told CIOL that it is high on their agenda. "People do expect you to behave with social consciousness. We will discuss strategies in creating new local jobs at the World Economic Forum," he said, adding that the company, as promised, would honour its commitment to the cause.

The 2012 edition of the WEF meeting with the theme, The Great Transformation: Shaping New Models, is scheduled to be held at Davos, Switzerland, from January 25 to 29. WEF is an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas.

Nayar's statement follows and coincides with HCL chairman and chief strategy officer Shiv Nadar's earlier remark that even as economies contracted and job environment remained challenged, HCL was committed to creating local jobs, contributing to the welfare of local communities and pushing the pedal on enterprise philanthropy.

The CEO, however, remained non-committal on the number of local employees the company plans to recruit this quarter. "We don't mention those figures." HCL added 7,804 employees during the second quarter, taking its total headcount to 83,076 by year-end.

The WEF, in association with Mercer, recently released a report, which highlights that collaboration in talent mobility among stakeholders on all sides of the employment equation is most effective in addressing labour market failures and enhancing job creation.

The report, Talent Mobility Good Practices — Collaboration at the Core of Driving Economic Growth, is based on 55 case studies from around the world. It shows concrete actions that organizations — including companies, governments, academic institutions and non-profit entities — have implemented to address talent challenges.

"Our research clearly shows that a broader view of talent mobility — beyond traditional international assignments — is necessary to grow businesses, industries and economies," said Piers A. Cumberlege, head of Partnership, World Economic Forum, at the report launch.

The report finds that while there are several examples of good practices that can be adopted to help rebalance global talent markets, talent mobility is not achieving its full potential. It points out that talent markets are impeded by four key problems: widespread unemployability, skills gaps, information gaps, and private and public constraints on mobility.

The additional stakeholders with talent mobility good practices analyzed in the WEF report include ABB, The Boston Consulting Group, the European Commission, HCL Technologies, Infosys Limited, the International Labour Organization, INSEAD, ManpowerGroup, Mercer, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Standard Chartered.

On its part, NASSCOM has been working towards optimizing portability of skills across industry verticals. In 2008, it partnered with state universities to create a standardized skills assessment and certification programme to streamline the application process for the industry.

Since its creation, about 100,000 college graduates have taken the test for entry-level hires and up to 250,000 students per year are expected to take the test in the future.