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
Showing posts with label temp staffing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label temp staffing. Show all posts
Monday, May 12, 2008
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
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