Looking for a creamy IT job? Get in a Taxi

Pratima H

BANGALORE, INDIA: Ask him what will trend on HR stratosphere in 2015 and he doesn’t blink an eye before telling that E-commerce will remain very active in campus hiring for this year and inclination in hiring towards property portal, taxi aggregators will continue. He also adds that Bangalore will keep on emerging for e-commerce as a cluster and hiring in this sector will stabilize in 2015 and more of consolidation and assimilation will take place this year.

Founder Rishi Das has been absorbing the above and many more trends from his big vantage point at HiRePro right at the centre of technology recruitment space in India. HiRePro, which was started by two IIT graduates, and is a sub brand of Careernet that was conceived about 10 years back in Bangalore, concentrates on a new turf which is technology enabled recruitment solutions for the knowledge economy.

Under this ambit, they have been covering domains like technology, banking, hardware, BPO, Insurance, Retail and the like. Rishi seems to have also pioneered the concept of collaborative campus recruitment in India and the company has been interestingly using technology as a crucial tool and component in the HR lifecycle.

In this interview, he tells us what has the industry been up to this year when it scans, assesses and hires people from the technology niche and what would catch everyone’s eye and may be some resumes in 2015.

First, tell us what makes HiRePro stand out in a well-filled and well-entrenched market?

HiRePro differentiates itself on the strengths of its process, knowledge base, technology platforms and the inherent understanding of talent attraction basics and principles. The HiRePro platform is built on this inherent understanding and offers the benefit of a solution that is capable and scalable. We started in 2003, as a recruitment process outsourcing enterprise, in response to the demand for expert professional support for all aspects of recruitment. and deliver Outplacement Services, Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO), ad response management, source management, career interface management and managing on demand recruitment needs. We have a customer base that includes Fortune 500 organizations.

Have you broken any molds out there?

Examples of innovation introduced by us include the definition of the Recruitment Supply Chain process in general and detailed processes for critical steps such as Post Offer Follow-up in particular. Our primary focus in the past few years has been the development of technology applications that ensure a significant increase in efficiency (time, cost, quality) and performance of recruitment processes – it is this amalgamation of technology and on-ground service excellence that sets HirePro apart. We have a trademarked Technology Enabled Remotely Managed (TERM) approach that is designed to create the culture of building cutting-edge technology to support recruitment. So some manifestations of this approach can be cited here like the Unified Vendor Management module, which helps integrate supply, Online Assessments and IVR-based systems for diverse stages for volume hiring. The entire recruitment process is visible on an integrated Applicant Management System (AMS) that helps track applicant interactions from the first point of entry to onboarding.

Any tangible milestones of the journey so far?

From a couple of RPO engagements in the late 2000s, we today manage over 25 assignments, for a range of clients from diverse sectors. Our processes impact hiring volumes in excess of 10,000 resources, an increase of 200 per cent over the past five years. Apart from IT, we also service diverse-sized clients, from start-ups to large companies across sectors including ITeS, manufacturing, new-age digital ventures such as e-commerce, retail and BFSI.

So why is HR different this year and what makes new-Age Sectors & Industries worth watching? Specially E-commerce and taxi-services?

Typical large companies in e-commerce are currently looking at significantly ramping up resources across diverse functions. The primary skills being hired for in e-commerce include Logistics & Operations, Call Centre & Customer Support and Software Engineering. Typical resource volumes across each of these skills in a large e-commerce company are 10,000-15,000 in Logistics & Operations (looking at a 30 per cent to 50 per cent increase this year); 2,500-4,000 in Customer Support (foreseen increase of 75 per cent to 100 per cent this year) and 500-1000 software engineers (foreseen increase of 75 per cent to 100 per cent). As to skills in demand in taxi aggregators we see Technology, Call Centre & Customer Support and Operations. The latter two in particular, will witness a high demand this year – increase in fleets under management will automatically imply the need for professionals to support on-ground operations.

How much and where?

Typically, a large company in taxi aggregation employs 500-700 people in Call Centre & Customer Support (will increase dramatically this year – foreseen to grow by 400 to 500 per cent); 150-300 people in Operations (foreseen to treble this year) and 100-200 people in Technology development & maintenance (foreseen to grow by 100 per cent)

Aren’t the numbers too good? Why is this phase not another bubble like we saw during the dotcom phase?

The market has so much unmet demand and the sector has finally started opening up. There is only 75 per cent fulfillment of demand happening today even if we score in the maximum number of trips that can be made per day. The industry is moving in a level-headed manner and still there is so much appetite in the market. It is a leaner and more efficient model today and given the levels of demand and urban needs in face of public transport situation we have presently, there is still some demand-supply gap. As to e-commerce there will be many more ventures coming specially filling the gaps that still exist and people who have been (and seen it well) at the likes of Amazon or Snapdeal or Flipkart and thus have identified apt gaps. They would be getting into the 2.0 phase of e-tailing. I guess the way companies are splurging money hints hardly at any bubble. E-commerce is clearly the poster boy for 2015.

Where exactly are good jobs popping in the market and why?

There may not be much momentum in IT salaries but online space is really heating up. It’s growing at a level of madness if you see the kind of hiring numbers and average salary figures out there. Even at the bottom of the pyramid I can see jobs emerging. Think of call centres with vernacular support or bikers or delivery boys in logistics sector. Captives and mainstream IT companies are also doing well, specially as they are ramping their digital and SMAC practices. Example- Accenture, Cognizant, Wipro. When I say ‘growth’ I am referring to total recruitment demand, which will include fresh hires and replacement hiring to account for attrition.

Are there any slow pockets?

There is not too much movement in the IT product space. They are by and large stagnant as companies have seen some practices and divisions getting closed. A lot of restructuring is happening on this front. There are product companies where VRS for senior employees is around the corner too. Product companies of any size worth mentioning employ niche skills resources, with resource bases ranging from 4000 to 8000 resources. We don’t see aggressive growth in resource base increase by product engineering companies this year and most of them will increase their resource base by a maximum of 10 to 15 per cent this year, if at all. But I see that campus hiring number will go up, as large number of start ups are looking to hire from campus. IT services may also hire large number from campuses and Big data, Cloud, Analytics will keep on emerging as a major hub in Chennai. Entrepreneurial quotient of talent is high as a result it is expected to see a lot of new start ups.

What about Real Estate Portals?

Real Estate Portals are key absorbers of talent in Technology, Sales & Customer Operations and Backoffice functions. Sales & Customer Operations comprise majority of the talent employed by the sector and, given the increasing focus on veracity of listings & real estate supply trends, this function is a key differentiator for Real Estate Portals. A typical large RE Portal employs 1000-2000 people on Sales & Customer Operations (and we foresee most of them doubling this base); 200-500 resources each for software engineering and backoffice operations (both seen as doubling this year)

Are IT Services faring well?

The IT Services space is foreseen to witness strong growth this year with high demand for quality resources. Typical large IT services corporations employ 100,000-150,000 software engineers; and we estimate that there will be a 30 per cent growth in demand from the sector this year.