Part Time Jobs and Women
Part time jobs and its relevance for people is a topic of discussion whose time has come. Part time jobs provide both extra earnings and the opportunity to pursue some activity close to our hearts. It is possible that some of us are engaged in our current professions as it provides the bread and butter. There may be other areas which interest us which we currently cannot pursue. Part time jobs gives us an opening to explore those opportunities. Besides the extra income, it also gives us satisfaction and gives a sense of achievement.
Part time jobs is especially relevant to women. These days you find many housewives who are well qualified and with a lot of talent which would be very useful to companies. Due to domestic constraints, she is forced to spend the day within the walls of her home. While the domestic responsibilities prevent her from pursuing a full time job, it may definitely be possible to pursue a part time opportunity. Some of these part time jobs can be done sitting right in side the house – like tuitions, content writing, web designing, data entry, telecalling etc…
Just think of the benefits that accrue from the engagement in a part time job. Most obviously, it brings in an extra income which could be useful for the family. More importantly, this jobs given them an exposure and builds up self confidence and avoids the frustration of being restricted to the walls of the house. For qualified people, this is also a way of keeping in touch with the subject. Often times, the lady would be free to work after a few years. In which case, the experience gained under part time jobs becomes valuable.
The industry and companies benefit by adding women to their work force on a part time basis. In this era where skill shortage is so prevalent, this helps companies to tap into a talent pool at a relatively low cost.
But the MEDIUM is the constraint - the platform for conveying the right part time jobs to right people is lacking here. Inspite of classifieds and other ads, a credible source for searching for part time jobs on a regular basis is lacking. Once such a platform is available, it would make part time jobs easier to find and the lives of thousands of women will be changed for ever!
Anoop Narayanan
Web Professional, Cochin
anookn@gmail.com
Monday, May 19, 2008
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Part Time Jobs
What comes to your mind when you hear “ Part time jobs “ ?
A job which can be done in your leisure time ?
A job which can be done from the comfort of your home ?
A job which can be done at your convenience ?
A job which can be pursued as a passion ( if you are not satisfied with your existing job)?
The list goes on and on…… right ?
Think of a situation where you are in to Full time Part time job. Feeling something contradictory? Yes, that is where the world is taking us to.
In India, when comparing to the earlier days, HR department is becoming more and more strategic in nature. Organisations are looking for more creative options to fulfill the requirements in a less time and less cost. The obvious solutions would be to hire people who work at their conveniences which decrease the cost of work and also increases the productivity. Advanced countries have already gone through this way, and found successful to a certain extent. Now the turn is of INDIA, one of the youngest countries in the world.
The challenges ahead to inculcate a habit of doing part time jobs, in India.
General
Its been perceived that, Indians at their hometown are less productive than at their overseas environment. In effect, in India, a lot of people are spending their time unproductively - Infact, if we go to country side, we can see youngsters wasting their most valuable time by just playing cards or gossiping. - Elders or those who have experienced the fruits by working part time, should start propagating the importance of part time jobs, and its effectiveness.
Habit of utilizing the free time effectively should be nurtured, which might help them to cover up their petty expenses.
Organizations
Organisation should build a fool proof, genuine system which can increase the trust and credibility of part time jobs. Once people are confident that part time jobs are a good source of income, more people will get attracted towards that, which will be benefited to both the parties – Employers and job seekers.
Organisations should propagate the importance of Part time jobs among youngsters, which happens to be the largest pool of population in India.
Society
Parents should help their kids to practice the habit of earning while they learn. At the same time, parents should also be very careful that their kids are not carried away with the flow of income they have.
So let’s start enjoying benefits of Part time jobs… and probably after few years we will start enjoying the fulltime part time jobs.
Sumesh k Menon
CEO – Winds Online Pvt Ltd.,
www.windsonline.com
A job which can be done in your leisure time ?
A job which can be done from the comfort of your home ?
A job which can be done at your convenience ?
A job which can be pursued as a passion ( if you are not satisfied with your existing job)?
The list goes on and on…… right ?
Think of a situation where you are in to Full time Part time job. Feeling something contradictory? Yes, that is where the world is taking us to.
In India, when comparing to the earlier days, HR department is becoming more and more strategic in nature. Organisations are looking for more creative options to fulfill the requirements in a less time and less cost. The obvious solutions would be to hire people who work at their conveniences which decrease the cost of work and also increases the productivity. Advanced countries have already gone through this way, and found successful to a certain extent. Now the turn is of INDIA, one of the youngest countries in the world.
The challenges ahead to inculcate a habit of doing part time jobs, in India.
General
Its been perceived that, Indians at their hometown are less productive than at their overseas environment. In effect, in India, a lot of people are spending their time unproductively - Infact, if we go to country side, we can see youngsters wasting their most valuable time by just playing cards or gossiping. - Elders or those who have experienced the fruits by working part time, should start propagating the importance of part time jobs, and its effectiveness.
Habit of utilizing the free time effectively should be nurtured, which might help them to cover up their petty expenses.
Organizations
Organisation should build a fool proof, genuine system which can increase the trust and credibility of part time jobs. Once people are confident that part time jobs are a good source of income, more people will get attracted towards that, which will be benefited to both the parties – Employers and job seekers.
Organisations should propagate the importance of Part time jobs among youngsters, which happens to be the largest pool of population in India.
Society
Parents should help their kids to practice the habit of earning while they learn. At the same time, parents should also be very careful that their kids are not carried away with the flow of income they have.
So let’s start enjoying benefits of Part time jobs… and probably after few years we will start enjoying the fulltime part time jobs.
Sumesh k Menon
CEO – Winds Online Pvt Ltd.,
www.windsonline.com
Monday, May 12, 2008
The Blur between Part Time Jobs and Flexi Careers
Temporary staffing or temping, is emerging as the fastest growing recruitment trend in the country. Globally a $140 billion business, while third-party contracting is yet to play a dominant role in India, it has gained a foothold with a large number of big and small companies opting to engage staff without the responsibility of managing them. There are many challenges and behind the scene complexities for temporary staffing organisations who have to pay a fine balancing act in attracting and retaining the right resources for their client organisations.
It is not an easy job for temping companies to lure skilled talent who look for established names and permanent positions. This despite the fact that nowadays flexible career is no longer an unattractive option for many professionals. Attrition remains a challenge for all organisations in the IT and BPO sector, and temporary staffing companies are no different. Organised temporary job is a bridge to permanent employment.What are we talking about is essentialy Flexible careers which are increasingly appealing to professionals because they are continually challenged and can choose to take breaks between assignments and projects befitting their capabilities and experience or do something along with their main line half hearted jobs and do what THEY ENJOY ! The target demographic includes retired experienced professionals, housewives, freelancers, students and freshers. Campus recruitments, referral programmes and channel partners are the different sources to acquire talent. Each of this segment would be for sure be a big set of people waiting to be kindled with some avenues to work, for instance the retiree segment would be huge , for instance think of all the insurance and finance companies that can benefit from retired bank employees ! insurance companies from people, maybe a housewife who can join as an insurance advisor etc the possibilities are infinite !
Future of temping in India
In any country 5 percent of the workforce comprises of temporary staffers is what is estimated . Its predicted that in India there is potential of 1-1.5 crore jobs in the next five years. It is however necessary to increase the employability factor of par time job seekers in the country, in terms of technical skills and domain knowledge. The flexi job market has nearly doubled in each of the last few years and is expected to grow as the economy continues to expand; and there is an increasing acceptance of temporary staffing as a mode of employment in the corporate sector .Its the flexi career segment that holds a lote of promise for the future.
Sharan Shetty
Head Marketing – South
Bharti Airtel
It is not an easy job for temping companies to lure skilled talent who look for established names and permanent positions. This despite the fact that nowadays flexible career is no longer an unattractive option for many professionals. Attrition remains a challenge for all organisations in the IT and BPO sector, and temporary staffing companies are no different. Organised temporary job is a bridge to permanent employment.What are we talking about is essentialy Flexible careers which are increasingly appealing to professionals because they are continually challenged and can choose to take breaks between assignments and projects befitting their capabilities and experience or do something along with their main line half hearted jobs and do what THEY ENJOY ! The target demographic includes retired experienced professionals, housewives, freelancers, students and freshers. Campus recruitments, referral programmes and channel partners are the different sources to acquire talent. Each of this segment would be for sure be a big set of people waiting to be kindled with some avenues to work, for instance the retiree segment would be huge , for instance think of all the insurance and finance companies that can benefit from retired bank employees ! insurance companies from people, maybe a housewife who can join as an insurance advisor etc the possibilities are infinite !
Future of temping in India
In any country 5 percent of the workforce comprises of temporary staffers is what is estimated . Its predicted that in India there is potential of 1-1.5 crore jobs in the next five years. It is however necessary to increase the employability factor of par time job seekers in the country, in terms of technical skills and domain knowledge. The flexi job market has nearly doubled in each of the last few years and is expected to grow as the economy continues to expand; and there is an increasing acceptance of temporary staffing as a mode of employment in the corporate sector .Its the flexi career segment that holds a lote of promise for the future.
Sharan Shetty
Head Marketing – South
Bharti Airtel
Creating Flexi Jobs
Create Flexi jobs - An alternate approach to our staffing needs
Unlike the earlier days, today the major challenge for an entrepreneur or manager is to identify the right talent at the right time. No wonder, Talent Acquisition has evolved as a corporate function in the last few years. If you talk to an HR researcher or any practitioner from the industry, they will bring out talent sourcing as ‘the’ challenge they face. If the situation continues, most of us will agree that we will not have the advantage of being the preferred destination with access to a large educated talent pool. In this context we need to view temporary staffing or part time jobs as an alternate approach to many of our immediate staffing needs. Various HR forums have already identified part time jobs as a future trend. Quite common in the developed world, we are likely to see the part time job phenomenon gaining acceptance in India too.
It is a fact that currently this is viewed as a less recognized, less organized process of hiring. Most often in the past, corporates approached temp staffing only to meet certain short-term non critical assignments or to replace some temporary leave vacancies The social stigma to a non permanent job has also largely contributed to it. It is a proven fact that “job security” is no longer a differentiator for any employer. “pink slips” have happened in the most permanent and lucrative jobs also. These days security or insecurity relates more to the “employability” or “marketability” of the person. If you are marketable, you will permanently earn and continue to maintain the required social status. So what really differentiates between a permanent and temporary job?
In developed nations; temp staffing is resorted to meet various specialized requirements. Indian IT industry itself matured and grew based on the temp staffing opportunities across the globe, where specialists were hired as “consultants”. They executed the most complex projects in a scenario where hiring such specialists to permanent positions were next to impossible. Not to mention that these “contractors” were most often paid more than the permanent employees! So it is all a question of our mindset.
Let us look at it from a few other angles as well. While even being in active profession most of us would have at times thought of developing an “alternate career”. Many of us might have some “skill” which could be of advantage to others. There could be an urge to pursue some active areas of interest. Most of us who had long years of education wanted to always “earn while we learn”. All such activities have also helped us gain a lot of exposure which even came handy when we lead teams. For many of us these were a need, and for a few others an opportunity to earn those extra bucks or to keep themselves engaged. If we can reach out to educated home makers, retired professionals and students, we will be definitely opening a flood gate of talent pool available across even the smaller cities and towns. Employers will benefit in getting ‘quality’ work done, especially with less spent in managing employee engagement and talent retention.
Very often we see people taking to careers due to parental guidance. These days, career counseling has also become a must for any young job aspirant. Instead, should we not advise them to take the route of part time jobs? Practically, there is no better way to expose a future employee to the nuances of a job and for the employer to do a proper check on his capabilities. Employers, I am sure would be only willing to hire those part timers permanently once they prove their mettle during the assignment. So can we not look at it as an accepted mode of entry? In earlier days, all such opportunities came either by accident or through personal references. Identifying such opportunities in today’s world is much trickier. Our modern economy accepts this as need for better social networking. Any forum that can formalize such social networking will be the right step towards formalizing the temporary jobs phenomenon. These forums can act as a medium between job seekers and employers, and soon we will relate to this potential source of talent pool and recognize it as the one-stop solution to our staffing nightmares.
Moving forward I am sure we will also more often see specialists in management and technology, preferring to take up jobs which offer them better earning potential packed with a lot of flexibility in working. Organizations will be only happy to work with such specialists who have accepted this as their strategy to strike a balance between work and life.
Is it the name that is creating an impression on us? If so call it a “Flexi Job” instead of temporary job or part time job; if that can help us move forward fast.
sunils@nousinfo.com
Sunil Sankar
Vice President- Operations & HR
Web : www.nousinfosystems.com
Unlike the earlier days, today the major challenge for an entrepreneur or manager is to identify the right talent at the right time. No wonder, Talent Acquisition has evolved as a corporate function in the last few years. If you talk to an HR researcher or any practitioner from the industry, they will bring out talent sourcing as ‘the’ challenge they face. If the situation continues, most of us will agree that we will not have the advantage of being the preferred destination with access to a large educated talent pool. In this context we need to view temporary staffing or part time jobs as an alternate approach to many of our immediate staffing needs. Various HR forums have already identified part time jobs as a future trend. Quite common in the developed world, we are likely to see the part time job phenomenon gaining acceptance in India too.
It is a fact that currently this is viewed as a less recognized, less organized process of hiring. Most often in the past, corporates approached temp staffing only to meet certain short-term non critical assignments or to replace some temporary leave vacancies The social stigma to a non permanent job has also largely contributed to it. It is a proven fact that “job security” is no longer a differentiator for any employer. “pink slips” have happened in the most permanent and lucrative jobs also. These days security or insecurity relates more to the “employability” or “marketability” of the person. If you are marketable, you will permanently earn and continue to maintain the required social status. So what really differentiates between a permanent and temporary job?
In developed nations; temp staffing is resorted to meet various specialized requirements. Indian IT industry itself matured and grew based on the temp staffing opportunities across the globe, where specialists were hired as “consultants”. They executed the most complex projects in a scenario where hiring such specialists to permanent positions were next to impossible. Not to mention that these “contractors” were most often paid more than the permanent employees! So it is all a question of our mindset.
Let us look at it from a few other angles as well. While even being in active profession most of us would have at times thought of developing an “alternate career”. Many of us might have some “skill” which could be of advantage to others. There could be an urge to pursue some active areas of interest. Most of us who had long years of education wanted to always “earn while we learn”. All such activities have also helped us gain a lot of exposure which even came handy when we lead teams. For many of us these were a need, and for a few others an opportunity to earn those extra bucks or to keep themselves engaged. If we can reach out to educated home makers, retired professionals and students, we will be definitely opening a flood gate of talent pool available across even the smaller cities and towns. Employers will benefit in getting ‘quality’ work done, especially with less spent in managing employee engagement and talent retention.
Very often we see people taking to careers due to parental guidance. These days, career counseling has also become a must for any young job aspirant. Instead, should we not advise them to take the route of part time jobs? Practically, there is no better way to expose a future employee to the nuances of a job and for the employer to do a proper check on his capabilities. Employers, I am sure would be only willing to hire those part timers permanently once they prove their mettle during the assignment. So can we not look at it as an accepted mode of entry? In earlier days, all such opportunities came either by accident or through personal references. Identifying such opportunities in today’s world is much trickier. Our modern economy accepts this as need for better social networking. Any forum that can formalize such social networking will be the right step towards formalizing the temporary jobs phenomenon. These forums can act as a medium between job seekers and employers, and soon we will relate to this potential source of talent pool and recognize it as the one-stop solution to our staffing nightmares.
Moving forward I am sure we will also more often see specialists in management and technology, preferring to take up jobs which offer them better earning potential packed with a lot of flexibility in working. Organizations will be only happy to work with such specialists who have accepted this as their strategy to strike a balance between work and life.
Is it the name that is creating an impression on us? If so call it a “Flexi Job” instead of temporary job or part time job; if that can help us move forward fast.
sunils@nousinfo.com
Sunil Sankar
Vice President- Operations & HR
Web : www.nousinfosystems.com
The Elusive 'employee'
In search of the elusive Employee
Every article on manpower – be it in the newspapers or interviews with HR executives talks of only one thing- shortage. Different shades of shortage are often emphasized. Shortage of skills, talent, sheer numbers and so on.. Till a few years ago, such a notion would have been un thinkable in this country of a billion people. Remember the films of the 70s and 80s with the chief protagonist being the angry young man? And travails of educated unemployed youth the mainstay of story lines?
So what has changed now? Obviously the growth of the IT industry, followed by the outsourcing phenomenon created a new genre of very desirable jobs that attracted the youngsters ready to join the work force. Following this came the fruits of economic growth creating demand all around, especially in the service sector. All these are good things to happen. The problem is how can we continue to make the good things happen if the shortages are not alleviated?
Policy makers obviously need to think of long term, permanent solutions. This involves investment in education, skill development and so on. By nature, these are long term activities and assuming our economic growth story continues, will be just about sufficient to partly feed the incremental demand. Meanwhile, the phenomenon of shortage continues and is likely to continue for some time.
The shortage manifests itself in several ways. Lets look at what the IT industry has done to the job market:
1) The IT / BPO industry whose non manpower costs are low, can attract available talent by paying attractive salaries. Besides, there is the glamour related to working in the industry. This has created a flow of manpower out of other industries leading to shortages there
2) The benchmark for salaries is so high that several industries are unable to meet expectations of employees leading to frequent churn.
3) The desire to land IT job is driving students away from certain kinds of courses. This will obviously reduce availability of those skills in future.
4) The large scale recruitment of IT companies has led to situation where most youngsters have several friends or relatives working in one of these ‘glamour’ companies. Now that he sees such a job as within his reach, joining a ‘lesser’ company is never satisfactory.
Having said so much, it would seem as if I am pointing a finger at the IT / ITES industry for all the shortages and problems of the other industries. To clarify, that is not what is implied. I merely quote the above trends as pointers to the changing structure of the job market and how it has become necessary for people to start looking at newer ways of filling their human resource requirements.
Also, it is not implied that the IT industry is having it cool on the manpower front. The smaller companies there are under similar pressure in terms of attracting talent as their paying ability is obviously limited. Billing rates that a small company can command is significantly lower than what the larger ones can get. This will reflect as a differential in the salaries paid. The smaller companies also have the problem of losing manpower to bigger companies once the employee has acquired some experience.
And what about the large IT companies? Like they say, the bigger you are, the bigger your problems. Neither are the large IT companies immune to the manpower shortage. While they can afford to pay more to attract talent, there are obviously some limitations. Rising competition form other countries and companies will put pressure on their billing rates and place a strain on manpower costs.
So regardless of which industry you are or your current size, if manpower and human resources is necessary for your growth, you need to think of newer ways of filling the gaps. What are the possibilities on this front? Without including the long term large scale programs of the government and policy makers, to my mind there are a few options that can be pursued by companies big and small right away.
1) Upskilling: Companies need to consider whether their current employees are placed in optimum positions. Is it possible for a graduate to do what is currently being done by an engineer? Is it possible to use a 12th class person with experience to replace a graduate? Do we need to look at the job specs once more? As an example, the minimum qualifications required to join a PSU bank in the clerical cadre is only class X. But historically, the labour surplus has ensured that these jobs were taken by graduates. So we start getting used to the idea of a graduate doing clerical work. Is it necessary? Is it sustainable? Take a relook at the job spec.
Another possibility is to change job divisions. As every employee would agree, there are a lot of activities that a person does which really does not require his level of skill. So a Brand Manager spends a lot of time making unimportant phone calls or generating reports which can possible be done by someone less qualified and less paid- even by an outsourced or par time person. After all even a 12th class person today is computer literate and possibly speaks good English. By farming off these ‘time killers’, is it possible to reduce the requirement of Brand Managers? Same thought could be applied to Java Programmers or College Professors.
2) Technology: With the large scale reach of the Internet, telephones and mobile phones, location is fast becoming an irrelevant consideration. Hence it is possible to have people working from homes or even in a different city. At least in theory. In practice, companies still find sufficient reasons not to embrace the possibility. Again, isn’t it necessary to take a relook at such aspects as control, supervision, confidentiality, quality etc.. the reasons most quoted for restricting employees to within the walls of an office. Is it not possible for a programmer to write code sitting in Bhilai for a company in Bangalore? Is it not possible for a copy writer to be based in Trivandrum and write copy for an ad agency in Mumbai? Does this person necessarily have to be en ‘employee’ or can he be a part time jobber? If the ‘office’ constraint is removed, a larger talent pool is available to companies. Technology makes this possible.
The same technology can be used to improve efficiency and effectiveness. E learning can be used effectively for up skilling discussed in the earlier point. This is just one example. A conscientious effort by companies can unearth numerous ways of using technology to augment manpower.
3) Talent Pool Redefinition – Part time Job possibilities: While talking of non availability of manpower, have we considered all options? Think of the modern housewife. The tribe these days contains women with post graduate qualification and even engineers and management graduates. Possibly forced to remain at home due to family constraints or locational constraints, she is now not part of the talent pool. Are nt there plenty of jobs critical to companies which she can execute as a part time job sitting at home? Some innovation in job definitions, flexibility in beliefs in confidentiality, control etc.. will make it possible for companies to access this talent pool.
Now this is not restricted to housewives alone. Think of the large number of retirees every year. 30 odd years of experience which can be used atleast in a part time job. Or the large number of students who at 18 know more technology than a 35 year old manager. A part time job for them not only puts pocket money into their pockets but also gives them a valuable experience for a future career. Harnessing such talent - lets call it ‘informal employment’ could make a huge difference to finding resources and managing manpower costs. Of course, provided companies can change their thinking on work flow and management processes. We also need to keep in mind that abroad, this is a very common phenomenon – called “temping”. Part time jobs or temporary jobs is a phenomenon whose time has come in India too.
From an employee perspective, part time jobs are attractive today. If one member of the family is earning a substantial salary, why should the other spouse also work full time making it necessary to compromise on family life? If jobs are easily available, why not take a break once in a way? Thoughts and concepts that were not practical in our parents generation but very much possible today.
At the end of the day, it is the conviction that manpower shortages are impossible in a country of a billion people, (with most of them below respectable income levels), that is going to be the key. While short term mismatches in demand and supply are inevitable, if companies are responsive enough, solutions can be found at least with a short lag. Part time jobbers or ‘temps’ seems to offer a ready solution. At the moment, we still seem to be guided by management policies, beliefs, fears and value systems created during the era of the angry young man – a time when a post graduate was happy to land a bus conductors job.
One common misconception is that even if part time jobbers can be employed, it can be done only for very mundane tasks like data entry or word processing. To my mind, this is not true. There are thousands of SMEs which possibly cannot afford expert skills on a full time basis. However, to execute a specific project, hiring an ‘expert’ on a part time basis is very much possible. Or think of the instances where a project delivery was delayed because of inadequate resources – avoidable by adding extra manpower on a part time basis.
On the practical side, it is currently difficult for a part time job seeker to find a suitable part time job and vice versa for an employer looking for a part time employee. Hopefully, this will be overcome using the reach of the internet and other means.
I am not professing that part time jobs is the cure for all manpower problems. The only point of this article being that we already have a large pool of unutilized resources and with a change in the policies and beliefs, it is possible to tap into this pool. Will we see a part time CXO? Possibly. Lets see who will make the first significant move.. Await updates right here..
Satyanarayanan A K
CEO, minds@work Marketing Services
satya@mindsatwork.in
http://www.mindsatwork.in/
Every article on manpower – be it in the newspapers or interviews with HR executives talks of only one thing- shortage. Different shades of shortage are often emphasized. Shortage of skills, talent, sheer numbers and so on.. Till a few years ago, such a notion would have been un thinkable in this country of a billion people. Remember the films of the 70s and 80s with the chief protagonist being the angry young man? And travails of educated unemployed youth the mainstay of story lines?
So what has changed now? Obviously the growth of the IT industry, followed by the outsourcing phenomenon created a new genre of very desirable jobs that attracted the youngsters ready to join the work force. Following this came the fruits of economic growth creating demand all around, especially in the service sector. All these are good things to happen. The problem is how can we continue to make the good things happen if the shortages are not alleviated?
Policy makers obviously need to think of long term, permanent solutions. This involves investment in education, skill development and so on. By nature, these are long term activities and assuming our economic growth story continues, will be just about sufficient to partly feed the incremental demand. Meanwhile, the phenomenon of shortage continues and is likely to continue for some time.
The shortage manifests itself in several ways. Lets look at what the IT industry has done to the job market:
1) The IT / BPO industry whose non manpower costs are low, can attract available talent by paying attractive salaries. Besides, there is the glamour related to working in the industry. This has created a flow of manpower out of other industries leading to shortages there
2) The benchmark for salaries is so high that several industries are unable to meet expectations of employees leading to frequent churn.
3) The desire to land IT job is driving students away from certain kinds of courses. This will obviously reduce availability of those skills in future.
4) The large scale recruitment of IT companies has led to situation where most youngsters have several friends or relatives working in one of these ‘glamour’ companies. Now that he sees such a job as within his reach, joining a ‘lesser’ company is never satisfactory.
Having said so much, it would seem as if I am pointing a finger at the IT / ITES industry for all the shortages and problems of the other industries. To clarify, that is not what is implied. I merely quote the above trends as pointers to the changing structure of the job market and how it has become necessary for people to start looking at newer ways of filling their human resource requirements.
Also, it is not implied that the IT industry is having it cool on the manpower front. The smaller companies there are under similar pressure in terms of attracting talent as their paying ability is obviously limited. Billing rates that a small company can command is significantly lower than what the larger ones can get. This will reflect as a differential in the salaries paid. The smaller companies also have the problem of losing manpower to bigger companies once the employee has acquired some experience.
And what about the large IT companies? Like they say, the bigger you are, the bigger your problems. Neither are the large IT companies immune to the manpower shortage. While they can afford to pay more to attract talent, there are obviously some limitations. Rising competition form other countries and companies will put pressure on their billing rates and place a strain on manpower costs.
So regardless of which industry you are or your current size, if manpower and human resources is necessary for your growth, you need to think of newer ways of filling the gaps. What are the possibilities on this front? Without including the long term large scale programs of the government and policy makers, to my mind there are a few options that can be pursued by companies big and small right away.
1) Upskilling: Companies need to consider whether their current employees are placed in optimum positions. Is it possible for a graduate to do what is currently being done by an engineer? Is it possible to use a 12th class person with experience to replace a graduate? Do we need to look at the job specs once more? As an example, the minimum qualifications required to join a PSU bank in the clerical cadre is only class X. But historically, the labour surplus has ensured that these jobs were taken by graduates. So we start getting used to the idea of a graduate doing clerical work. Is it necessary? Is it sustainable? Take a relook at the job spec.
Another possibility is to change job divisions. As every employee would agree, there are a lot of activities that a person does which really does not require his level of skill. So a Brand Manager spends a lot of time making unimportant phone calls or generating reports which can possible be done by someone less qualified and less paid- even by an outsourced or par time person. After all even a 12th class person today is computer literate and possibly speaks good English. By farming off these ‘time killers’, is it possible to reduce the requirement of Brand Managers? Same thought could be applied to Java Programmers or College Professors.
2) Technology: With the large scale reach of the Internet, telephones and mobile phones, location is fast becoming an irrelevant consideration. Hence it is possible to have people working from homes or even in a different city. At least in theory. In practice, companies still find sufficient reasons not to embrace the possibility. Again, isn’t it necessary to take a relook at such aspects as control, supervision, confidentiality, quality etc.. the reasons most quoted for restricting employees to within the walls of an office. Is it not possible for a programmer to write code sitting in Bhilai for a company in Bangalore? Is it not possible for a copy writer to be based in Trivandrum and write copy for an ad agency in Mumbai? Does this person necessarily have to be en ‘employee’ or can he be a part time jobber? If the ‘office’ constraint is removed, a larger talent pool is available to companies. Technology makes this possible.
The same technology can be used to improve efficiency and effectiveness. E learning can be used effectively for up skilling discussed in the earlier point. This is just one example. A conscientious effort by companies can unearth numerous ways of using technology to augment manpower.
3) Talent Pool Redefinition – Part time Job possibilities: While talking of non availability of manpower, have we considered all options? Think of the modern housewife. The tribe these days contains women with post graduate qualification and even engineers and management graduates. Possibly forced to remain at home due to family constraints or locational constraints, she is now not part of the talent pool. Are nt there plenty of jobs critical to companies which she can execute as a part time job sitting at home? Some innovation in job definitions, flexibility in beliefs in confidentiality, control etc.. will make it possible for companies to access this talent pool.
Now this is not restricted to housewives alone. Think of the large number of retirees every year. 30 odd years of experience which can be used atleast in a part time job. Or the large number of students who at 18 know more technology than a 35 year old manager. A part time job for them not only puts pocket money into their pockets but also gives them a valuable experience for a future career. Harnessing such talent - lets call it ‘informal employment’ could make a huge difference to finding resources and managing manpower costs. Of course, provided companies can change their thinking on work flow and management processes. We also need to keep in mind that abroad, this is a very common phenomenon – called “temping”. Part time jobs or temporary jobs is a phenomenon whose time has come in India too.
From an employee perspective, part time jobs are attractive today. If one member of the family is earning a substantial salary, why should the other spouse also work full time making it necessary to compromise on family life? If jobs are easily available, why not take a break once in a way? Thoughts and concepts that were not practical in our parents generation but very much possible today.
At the end of the day, it is the conviction that manpower shortages are impossible in a country of a billion people, (with most of them below respectable income levels), that is going to be the key. While short term mismatches in demand and supply are inevitable, if companies are responsive enough, solutions can be found at least with a short lag. Part time jobbers or ‘temps’ seems to offer a ready solution. At the moment, we still seem to be guided by management policies, beliefs, fears and value systems created during the era of the angry young man – a time when a post graduate was happy to land a bus conductors job.
One common misconception is that even if part time jobbers can be employed, it can be done only for very mundane tasks like data entry or word processing. To my mind, this is not true. There are thousands of SMEs which possibly cannot afford expert skills on a full time basis. However, to execute a specific project, hiring an ‘expert’ on a part time basis is very much possible. Or think of the instances where a project delivery was delayed because of inadequate resources – avoidable by adding extra manpower on a part time basis.
On the practical side, it is currently difficult for a part time job seeker to find a suitable part time job and vice versa for an employer looking for a part time employee. Hopefully, this will be overcome using the reach of the internet and other means.
I am not professing that part time jobs is the cure for all manpower problems. The only point of this article being that we already have a large pool of unutilized resources and with a change in the policies and beliefs, it is possible to tap into this pool. Will we see a part time CXO? Possibly. Lets see who will make the first significant move.. Await updates right here..
Satyanarayanan A K
CEO, minds@work Marketing Services
satya@mindsatwork.in
http://www.mindsatwork.in/
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