Post-recession to see shift in hiring patterns

A post-recession scenario will see a shift in hiring patterns, with companies focussing on ensuring quality rather than quantity in recruitment and a pronounced thrust on the all-round ability of those recruited to deliver.

"As the global economy recovers, we are going to see companies getting smarter about recruitment", according to Sheeroy, CEO, Professional Aptitude Council (PAC), a leading global network of pre-qualified knowledge workers, who are ranked and differentiated by globally standardised exams.

"We are going to see a big difference in quality and marked changes in recruitment policies of companies", he told PTI.

There is going to be a massive demand for outsourcing and companies would not just leverage the cost arbitage, but also look at the quality arbitage, he noted.

The earlier focus on hiring 'larger numbers' would shift to quality, said Sheeroy.
  
Once above-average quality recruits were acceptable, but now the focus would be to ensure 'high quality' hires. The immense pressure to ensure 'more joins' would give way to 'best quality joins'.

Focus on technology skills as a hiring criteria would give way to all-round ability to deliver, he said.

Sheeroy opined that though the economy moves in a cyclic manner with ups and downs, each downturn teaches lessons, determining a new pattern. These lessons would lead to optimising staff potential and hiring, according to the best available skill sets.

In the post-recession period, HR managers would have to re-look at the hiring process and ensure that their hiring patterns are based on scientific principles.

"There is going to be a take off, an embrace of science into the HR process", he said, adding that the future lies in using global standards for recruitment. "Companies will leverage the best talent" available in the global workforce.

Forseeing the trend in pattern, PAC has come out with scientific tools to help employers hire people with skill sets that are 'best available' geographically.

The PAC test measures candidates over various parameters and compares skill sets with those worldwide.

This helps a recruiter understand the kind of skills sets available in a country and compare it to those available elsewhere in the globe and then plan recruitment, given the multi-geographic locations and services. 

Sheeroy said the test measures candidates on communication skills, aptitude, innate level of intelligence, specific technical skills, personal profile. "It provides complete profile or professional dimension to the recruiter," he said.
  
Citing an example, he said the test would provide a multinational company information on availability of skill sets in Bangaladesh versus that in India or in Phillipines.
  
While a set of candidates in a country generally tend to score well on one skill set, candidates from another might score better on another set, he said.
  
As per their needs, companies could then decide where to hire the talent they were looking from or where to base their office. By doing so they would not only optimise the workforce but also ensure that they hire the best skill sets available geographically.

"PAC using state-of-art and scientific methods, backed by strong online IT backbone,not only maps out talent accurately, but also benchmarks a candidate against a global pool. This helps HR functions become even more strategic contributions to businesses as comparisons of talent available within the organisation can be made against global pools of talent."
 
PAC has also come out with a programme Bright Sparks, which provides students in Tier I, II and III cities with the tools to highlight their strenghts in ways employers most care about and to benchmark their strengths, he said.