The dynamics of the burgeoning Indian workforce are indeed quirky - with no dearth of manpower to fuel a growing economy, companies are struggling to find and retain a qualified workforce. Many companies have begun to realize that obtaining an industry-ready workforce that can guarantee First Day First Hour delivery is near impossible with ready-to-use talent fast disappearing from the shelves of today’s job market.

For some time now, tertiary education in India has been re-inventing itself in many ways to create talent that is relevant to the industry. But given the complexity of today’s workplace, it is becoming harder for the majority of young professionals to keep pace with a dynamic work environment. The result: While companies battle it out to lay claim on the existing talent in a shrinking talent pool, a significant number of qualified graduates and young professionals with the potential to feed an expanding industry appetite find themselves on the fringes, waiting to be utilized.

In the prevailing climate, industry leaders with the experience and expertise to create and develop talent are making key changes in the hiring approach. Hiring strategies are slowly undergoing a fundamental alteration and instead of scouting for talent from outside, companies are focusing on growing talent from within. And why not, the advantages are several.

Long Term Career

When companies begin to build an organic talent pool, great care is taken to ensure that the hiring decision is mutually beneficial, not just in the short term but also in the long term. With rich training capabilities at hand, organizations can identify resources that show the potential to learn and contribute on the job instead of limiting themselves to those who can ‘Get it Right the First Time’. Such a far-sighted approach to recruitment results in a talent pool that sees value in building long, successful careers with the chosen employer, in turn bringing value to the organization employing them.

Relevant Learning

A keen employee is bound to seek learning in any function that he engages in. And in today’s dynamic workplace, learning is an integral part of most functions. However, what provides employees with the essential edge for success and growth is the amount of relevant learning that he manages to take home in the time made available to him. A carefully-structured training program, can transform a relatively inexperienced candidate in to a dependable performer within a stipulated time purely based on the relevance of the delivery. And this is possible only through an internally driven, highly personalized training strategy.

Well-aligned Workforce

Companies that possess the resource capability to develop a skilled workforce in-house have the liberty to look beyond just technical skills and focus on personal traits and values to see if they are aligned with those of the organization. For instance, an organization that believes in fostering gender diversity at the workplace cannot afford to have an employee with chauvinistic tendencies as he is likely to disrupt the balance on the work floor. Over time, headhunters of organizations have realized the importance of matching not just technical requirements and capabilities but also value systems as they have been found to be essential to build an enriching and lasting employer-employee relationship.

Building Expertise

One of the biggest advantages of internal learning and development programs is that they are built on the basis of the knowledge gained from delivering on real-life projects and tackling actual issues and challenges. They are thus highly customized and are hence, stronger in their structure and impact.

Creating Professionals

Companies that create a workforce from within see merit in creating not just knowledge workers but professionals. For this, their training programs are designed in such a way that they include segments in communication techniques, time management skills and even business etiquettes.

In a bustling business environment, organizations are feeling the need to establish their individual identities as employers. Workplaces are assuming distinctive characters with working styles, ethics and work policies distinguishing each from the other requiring a workforce as distinct as it. The solution lies in organizations letting go of the need to amass manpower and instead, turn the focus on creating a workforce that is characteristic of the organization it represents, a workforce that sees merit in imbibing the organization’s culture and value systems while mapping a personal growth story that is in tandem with the growth story of the company. After all, a career is much more than the work you do.