From job postings in employment exchanges and employment newspapers to the next-gen #IamHiring posts on Twitter, the world of talent acquisition has transformed significantly. There was a time when talent acquisition or selection was largely a manual interview-based process for almost all employers in India and the focus was essentially on getting a position filled. In the war for talent, the processes are more evolved and the focus is more towards attaining business outcomes managing not only the time or cost, but quality and conversion as well.     

Recruitment reengineering—partly through process transformation and mostly through technology intervention—has made it possible. On the one hand, there are a variety of domain, aptitude and psychometric assessments being offered to improve the screening process and on the other hand Applicant Tracking Systems with social media integration and SMS technology are aiming to make talent acquisition easier not just for the company but also for the prospective employee.

With employers reaching out to all possible locations in search of employable talent (that is scarce), they are also keen on providing a good candidate experience. This has led to the latest trend of setting up “impression centers” with the sole purpose of providing superlative candidate experience to job seekers who connect for various opportunities on offer with the organizations. All these demands being placed on the TA team have transformed the modus operandi of this most celebrated function of Human Resources. Adaptation of models of Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPOs) and Recruitment Shared Services is a testimony to the fact that TA market in India is taking steady steps towards maturity that has been visible in the western geographies.

The new age Talent Models – for delivering Business Results

India is at a critical juncture in its journey as a nation. With an exciting future ahead in terms of economic growth as well as available human potential, our challenges are even more peculiar. While the world would face either a shortage of jobs or of talent, we would be tackling the issue of matchmaking talent with the jobs. India Inc seems to have accepted this challenge and is looking at new age TA models that help them in delivering business results. Increasing acceptance of RPO models by corporate giants across industry sectors is a testimony to this fact. These models can deliver efficiency that runs up to one-third of the existing time and cost and at the same time deploy next-gen technologies for matchmaking jobs with talent and delivering superlative candidate experience. These visible benefits are attracting more and more CXOs towards the adoption of RPO.

Another model that is gaining momentum is ‘Pin Code Hiring’. With government initiatives like Smart Cities and Make in India, business growth will no longer be limited to the top 10 major cities, but will extend to about thousands of pin codes where most economic activities happen (over 800 districts or over 32,000 pin codes). Businesses understand this need, and hence are adapting a model that leverages people, process and technology to match job and talent down to the pin code level. Though this adaptation is still limited to industries with wider reach (Insurance, FMCG), its acceptance by other industry segments is not far off.  

Adaptation of these new models is making the TA space vastly exciting. Hope we will see more such break through solutions to cope up with the dynamic talent landscape.

What’s next?

The next big step in the talent acquisition arena this year will be the implementation of tools such as video interviews and video resume. This online technology for assessing people, without the need to meet them in person, not only adds to the experience of a candidate but is also a huge recruitment cost saving for the employers. With most of our clients, video resume is a huge hit. It gives a hiring manager the ability to assess the candidates’ aspects, which are beyond the details mentioned on a paper resume. In addition to domain based and aptitude assessments, talent assessment solutions must focus on tools for assessing value and cultural fitment. The shortage of the employable pool is also making it imperative for employers to train and hire models and for this new form of talent acquisition. Checking and establishing a good culture fitment will also become essential given the high cost of acquisition of talent this year.