TeamLease Digital, the specialised staffing division of TeamLease Services, has launched the first edition of their report titled TeamLease Digital Employment Outlook Report. A comprehensive report, it brings forth insights on how job creation and hiring is panning out in the IT-BPM sector. According to the research findings, aided by increased investments in the sector and rapid adoption of technology by enterprises; the IT BPM industry is on a positive hiring trajectory. The sector is expected to add 3.75 lakh new jobs and reach a head count of 4.85M in FY22.
The optimism is not just restricted to overall hiring, it is also impacting the model of employee-employer contract as well. While full-time employment commands the volume, with 17 per cent growth it is contract staffing that will gain significantly from the positivity in the market. IT contract staffing is expected to reach a headcount of 1.48 lakh employees by March 2022. The acceptance of contract staffing is not restricted to corporates even candidates are opening up to the concept of contract staffing. Unlike before nearly 15 per cent of contractual IT-BPM joiners in FY22 are from full-time employment.
An in-depth research, the report also delves deep into the areas / skills / roles that are in demand, demand-supply dynamics and above all what are companies doing to address the demand-supply gaps. As per the report digital skills is what the industry has set its eyes on this fiscal. Amongst digital skills, 13 skills sets are going to largely in demand and are in fact expected to record a 7.5 per cent growth in this fiscal over FY21. The trend is similar in the contract staffing space too. TeamLease Digital predicts that the demand for contract staffing for Digital Skills will grow by 50 per cent. This is a 19 per cent Increase when compared to last year.
While there is exponential demand for digital skills so is the supply gap. According to the research report the demand-supply gap is widening for data engineering, data science, machine learning and AI skills. The companies are expected to practice different upskilling and cross training initiatives to reduce the supply gap. The majority of the companies are opting for upskilling with or without certification (75 per cent), Create talent pipeline from graduate population (15 per cent), embrace contractual hiring (10 per cent) and cross train from other industry/domain (five per cent).
Sharing his views on the insights, Sunil C, Head- Specialised Staffing, TeamLease Digital said, “The Indian IT-BPM sector is at the cusp of an unprecedented growth. Apart from being the largest private sector employer (employees around 4.47M people), the IT-BPM industry is transforming India into a hub for “Digital Skills”. Forty-three per cent of our customers are expecting to increase Digital Skills hiring by at least 30 per cent or more this year, however, what is concerning is the demand-supply gap. Addressing the talent deficit will require organisations to re-look at their HR strategies. Organisation can solve the talent deficit through three main models: Build: Hiring fresh recruits in addition to ensuring upskilling, re-skilling, and near-skilling culture and training in the organisation will lead to great results. Buy: To fix the talent problem and survive the talent war, organisations have to resort to lateral hiring as the demand-supply gap is increasing. Borrow: Contract staffing with an organised and experienced contract staffing organisation can also help in hiring, training, deploying, and managing talent based on the skillsets where there is an urgent need. Globally, organisations have adopted a combination of these three modes with borrow proportion increasing exponentially (approx. 18 per cent in the US and 16 per cent in Europe). As IT-BPM employment is poised to double in the next few years, organisations should adopt all three modes in decent proportions to stabilise the talent pool and reduce dependency on one segment of talent.”
“The IT BPM industry is poised to touch 10M employee base in next five years and the contract staffing is expected to move up from three per cent to six per cent of this base,” added Sunil.
As per the study even attrition is gaining traction. While last year’s attrition was due to the pandemic and business uncertainty. This year’s attrition is owing to increased business, higher numbers of resignations. In fact, the attrition rate this is the highest in the history on IT-BPM industry. In FY2022, Full-time employment attrition is set to cross from 13 per cent to 24 per cent and contract staffing attrition is expected to grow up to 49 per cent from 40 per cent in FY2021.