Saturday, December 18, 2010

Placement Industry in India - Factoids

Hello Everyone,

 

We hope our blog posts are informative and helpful, today we wish to touch-base upon the topic of Placement Industry in India and sharing below are some factoids:

 

The most important aspect in the scope of Human Resources, is hiring of resources and that is a feat huge corporations manage to achieve with the help of timely and accurate Placements through third-party agencies and in-house recruitment teams.

 

Placement industry in India is becoming very large with the increase in the demand as well as easy availability of professional and trained manpower. Moreover number of jobs, candidates and companies has become so large that need for job consultants, who act as a mediator between candidate & employers, have felt badly. This has given a way to increase in the number of placement consultant agencies in India.

These Placement Agencies work in complete tandem with top MNCs, Corporate Firms, private limited firms and other big & small companies in India and abroad. Companies, which are commonly called Client, tell their manpower requirements to these placement agencies which in turn find the right candidate for them. Internationally India is a place that is the most sought after for employees because they have right mind set, education and knowledge. Sincerity, responsibility and dependability are other features that has led to the more demand of Indian manpower. So with this placement consultant agencies are mounting in number.

 

With the increase in the number of candidates and need for job, the human resources outsourcing firms or the placement industry India is recognized as the fastest growing industry. In India only, while 15 Million agencies help non-professional labor with placements such as construction, transport and certain industrial jobs, about 80 million work with professionals in ever-widening fields, such as Nursing, IT, HR, Engineering and Teaching. Recruitment firms or consultants take the commission from employee's salary if their selected candidate got the job. HR Sourcing (placement) is a large and complex universe in itself, encompassing many different functions associated with the HR department. The human capital marketplace remains highly competitive and is poised for enormous growth in the next 10 years, since; companies around the world are investing heavily in their human resources

infrastructure

 

While outsourcing is beneficial in many ways and also make sense for various reasons. The major benefit is in terms of cost cutting in companies' expenditure on recruitment and administrative work. There is seen large reduction in the costs of routine transactional and administrative work of the company that goes for human resources outsourcing. Another key reason is the belief that a company should outsource all non-mission critical aspects of its business.

The Placement consultant agencies, more commonly known as the professional employer organization (PEO), are well-equipped to take on the entire human resources activity. Most PEO clients are small- to medium-sized companies that sign up with a PEO, obtaining better deals on the purchase of benefits as a group rather than as a single small entity. Larger companies are also outsourcing HR tasks, but they more typically go with specialty firms. The most commonly outsourced function is employee assistance, and outplacement services.

Apart from firms and companies, candidates can also consult the placement and recruitment firms for job. Online they can submit their resume and explain their job requirement. On having any opportunity, the candidates are then called for the interview. Candidate can check for the employment in India and abroad.

 

(Excerpts from Search Engine)

 

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Can HR Professional Climb the Corporate Ladder?

There is a strong belief that HR is a support function and HR professionals cannot venture into main stream management  and lead  the vision of a Company . Therefore, there are very  few HR professionals who  attain the position of CEO in a Company.  This notion can easily be changed with a little bit of effort  and focus in a few crucial areas  of overall company management.  In this write up I would cover  some of the important points that would help HR professionals climb the corporate ladder and we could have more and more of HR professionals becoming Board Members and even CEOs. A CEO is a corporate title for the human face of a business. Occupying the seat of CEO of any corporation is a challenging and complex practice. CEO must recognize the value of HR, because if a CEO does not inculcate the culture of hiring the right people at the right time, then he/she  cannot drive an organization in a right direction.

 

Key Focus Points  To Achieve Top Management Positions

1. Play a significant a role  in driving shareholder value.

Although directly in measurable terms a HR professional cannot drive the shareholder value. But by being the arbiter of corporate culture and by  focusing  a good part of their responsibility on a positive morale about the company across the organization, the HR  professionals can  make sure that people keep working and are always motivated and happy. This will positively contribute  to overall shareholder value.

2. Be an important contributor  to the company’s overall mission.

HR needs to have no illusions about their role in the business. As hard as it may be to accept HR is a service organization that provides support to the business. This is most clear in that HR is a cost center and does not drive revenue. Still  the HR  can be an important contributor to the company’s overall mission by  supporting the business in the way that it needs support and make sure that the business is compliant with laws, rules, regulations, and policies. By helping  the business navigate through these areas to move forward. Do not set up roadBLOCKS rather provide roadSIGNS. By doing this the HR could be perceived more than a support function and looked as partner in the company’s progress.

3. Help  to brand the company as an ‘employer of choice’.

Creating a strong employment brand is important, but also retaining top talent, driving down attrition by helping management understand that empowering employees with information makes it possible for them to take ownership of the company mission. If there is a top-down approach to management in this way then the organization becomes stronger and the employees feel like they made a good choice to work for the company, and the moves in the direction of being "employer of choice".

4. Focus on people and culture and not compliance and policies.

A great HR professional understands the meaning of the two words HUMAN and RESOURCE. That the HR role in the business is all about the people (not ALL ABOUT process, and metrics, and policies) and that the HR organization is a resource to the employee and the management. A mediocre HR professional places too much value on the corporate structure and looks to implement programs and ideas based on some overblown process that is either driven by metrics or cost and loses sight that "people are the true engine of a company, without them the company will fail". Therefore there has to be a greater focus on people and culture and not on compliance and policies. Thus aim to become a great HR professional and not a Mediocre one.

5.  Drive the Line Managers  to be successful in their hiring efforts.

The biggest failure of HR professionals  is not helping the line managers  drive to their desired results. While HR is a service and support organization, this is one area where HR can stop being a lap-dog. By helping the line managers  understand  their recruitment and staffing needs and its urgency, their need to focus on making the hire and making sound decisions in a timely manner. Even if  the line managers drag  their  feet and were to take 3-5 months to hire someone, HR will still be blamed for the length of time it took to make the hire. So as long as HR will take the heat anyway, HR needs to own this process as well and drive the manager to be successful in their hiring efforts.

6. Prepare yourself well  to succeed in other line functions of the Company.

This is very important.  HR professionals  have to be more flexible and more adaptable than any other line managers in the organisation. Because the focus of  HR expertise is the most unpredictable part of the business, which is the  People, the landscape of what the HR professionals  do changes daily. This well prepares HR professionals  to deal with the rest of the business in terms of the adversity they may face entering into new roles and the people they will have to work with. Often time the really great people skills are the one thing that can't be taught. Finance, Marketing, Administration, even engineering, research, and development can be taught.  Understanding people skills is very important to succeed as a line manager and HR professionals are well versed with it.

7. Always try  to meet  the expectations of the line managers.

HR professionals  must understand what  it takes to be an effective business colleague and invest time to gain credibility with the line managers they work with.  They should always try to meet the expectations of the line managers and always under promise and over deliver to them. This certainly helps to spread the popularity of HR professionals in an organization.

8. Drive people to make great decisions and see the big picture.

 Great HR professionals get their hands dirty in the day to day work of HR. This would help them grow up the corporate ladder and be able to sit comfortably as the CEO. Additionally, they may come to understand the business very well. A CEO role that is all about managing a team and taking the company towards success should be something that a great HR professional can do well. Driving people to make great decisions and see the big picture.

9. Always aim to report to the CEO.

 Jack Welch of GE often talks about the true value of HR  function and what it brings  to the table and how important and undervalued it is by many of his peers. He has been quoted as saying, "If you are the top HR professional in a company and don't report directly to the CEO then get out." He means that the CEO has to have that regular visibility and view into his company from HR's perspective. Without that he may make great money and business decisions for the company, but if those decisions feed back  negatively on his workers then he knows that leads towards failure.  This summarizes the importance of reporting to the CEO for both . the HR professional and for the CEO himself.

CONCLUSION
In conclusion, it can be said with a proper focus on all the above mentioned points, there is no reason why a HR professional cannot move up the corporate ladder and occupy a Board seat or a position as A CEO in an organization. There have been a good number of HR people who have moved into CEO roles.
 In almost all of these cases I, they have moved laterally into other executive roles, before being appointed into the CEO role. In my view, it would be very difficult and unlikely to be promoted without having had P&L responsibility for a division or part of the business. Therefore it is important that Hr professionals desiring to move up the corporate ladder  should aim at having some operational line management responsibilities, before moving ahead.

 

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

How the Recruitment Industry is Changing



Over the years the scenario of the recruitment industry has quite changed. With the advent of the Internet it was initially thought that the recruitment companies would face a crisis. But it was also expected that the online platform will change the face of the recruitment industry for good. Marginal changes definitely took place but it was observed that the recruiters instead of competing with the new medium have started using it as one of their platforms to serve their clients better.

The advent of the online medium made it easier for the recruiters to search candidates and register them. This in a way made the recruiting agencies more popular as at the same time they were able to reach out to a huge number of candidates. During the time of recession, a trend to shift to online recruitment has been marked. Many professionals who initially joined companies as recruiters shifted to start working individually or in small groups in order to maximize their profit. During the recession period the employers were also aware about minimizing their costs and they were looking for alternative routes to seek suitable candidates for specific posts. During this period, many of them found the online portals to be good alternative than hiring recruiters to search candidates.

The printing media will continue to publish advertisements of job vacancies and their respective requirements. There are numerous job seekers who look up this medium for finding the most suitable job post. But compared to printed ads the online job advertising has gained much popularity over the years among job seekers. Many companies have also started maintaining their own in-house system to look up for candidates online instead of assigning the task to any agency.

Campus recruitment has also become one of the popular arenas to find the suitable talent. Employers initiate different job fairs and campus recruitments in order to meet the very fresh talents who would be also looking forward a suitable job position and a reputed employer. Though online portals have become quite popular among job seekers as well as employers to find suitable jobs and suitable talents respectively yet in a way this procedure has increased the gap between an employer and a job seeker.

The use of online job portals has definitely changed the scenario of the recruitment industry as it has become an intrinsic part of the industry. Different technological inventions like applicant tracking system, job listing and resume database etc have contributed to improvement of the recruitment procedures. Online portals have also aided the job seekers to search through a huge number of probable jobs without even visiting a recruiter or individual employer. But it has been also observed that students especially the fresh graduates are seeking personal attention which is lacking in the online job portals. The electronic medium can be good support to the recruitment industry but this can not provide personalized attention or initiate any human interaction. Whereas candidates approaching recruiters and recruitment consultants are able to interact with them, specify their requirements and this entire process is very much necessary in the initial stage of job seeking.


Signing off,
Harjeet Singh Sandhu

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Human Resources - An Introduction

Firstly, I’d like to thank everyone for taking time out to take a tour of Conscript’s Company Website and for reading my article.

 

In my entire career span of 16 years, I have worked closely with some of the Best HR Heads and Managers who’ve always been ahead in their game to hire that “perfect” resource required for their organization’s growth and development.

It’s been amazing to see how the Work Processes, Tools, Hiring Strategies and Technologies have enhanced and changed over the years and it still amazes me.

However, what remains at the core of all these mind-boggling processes is the fact that we are infact, hiring, Human Resources.

And Humans, by their very definition, are complex thinking beings designed to make all things bright and beautiful.

 

I am not going to give you dictionary-filled definitions of what Human Resources means however simply going to take you through my understanding of HR and what goes beyond hiring that Perfect Candidate for the Perfect Job.

 

The HR team in any organization has, is and maybe always will be considered to be “Expense-creators” for the mere fact that there is no direct way of Revenue Generation essentially required to run an organization.

But, the fact always remains the Human Resources Team IS the back-bone of any Strong Functioning Organization.

We may have the latest technology and streamlined processes that makes work error-free however what we must acknowledge more importantly is that Hiring can be pretty subjective to a lot of factors.

The most common mistake made by hiring managers currently is trying to hire the “perfect CV”.

Well, nothing wrong in that, after all requisites like Qualification, Relevant Work Experience and Excellent References are important to decide hiring the Right Candidate.

However, what we overlook, more often than not, is to understand the Emotional Quotient of the Candidate.

Their Personality Trait, Preferences, Relationship with Family and Friends is equally important to understand especially if you are hiring them for a critical, high-pressure role.

I can tell that from experience because we at Conscript believe that we help Clients hire “the perfect candidate” and not the perfect CV and that is what has helped us build a great relationship with our Clients close to a decade now.

I hope this helps you too!

 

Signing off,

Harjeet Singh Sandhu

Saturday, September 18, 2010

A Fresh Look

We would soon be launching our freshly designed website. Its been great to have all the suggestions and feedback from people. We look forward to seeing more positive and fruitful achievements with out new web presence.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010