he technology carnage has deposed the techie from his high seat, triggering an unimaginable, unprecedented surge in tech unemployment. In November 2001, the unemployment rate in US shot to 5.7 per cent, the highest ever in six years. In India official figures are unavailable, and large-scale layoffs are now a regular organisational weapon to combat the downturn. Last week, Tata Infotech and Tanning Technologies became recent entries to a long list of companies which includes majors like IBM, Infosys, Satyam and Wipro who issued pink slips to employees. The imperatives of corporate survival is impelling a majority of organisations to rethink hiring strategies, revise compensation norms and opt for better talent optimisation, blunting the legendary powers of techies to wring astronomical salaries from employers. Frenzied, indiscriminate hiring, characteristic of IT's halycon days, have been replaced with selective and smart hiring geared around critical company goals of achieving improved operational efficiency during the downturn. Prodigal IT talent can no longer breeze in and out of jobs, signifying the arrival of stringent and rigorous hiring standards on the IT employment scene.
A quick view of the India Jobs section of www.assureconsulting.com or the classifieds in any leading daily reveals that demand for the rank and file of the doctor revolution has gone kaput. The drop in technology spending, lengthening sales cycles sustained billing pressure and piling inventories has wrought unrelenting pressure on Indian software companies to upgrade domain expertise and speed time to market products and services. As tech companies don survival gear and race to keep ahead of competitors and the downturn, they no longer have the luxury to train and are looking for top-tier talent that can step into the company without missing a beat. Hence, rather than "hands down technical chops" (to borrow a term from the Time magazine), companies are looking for employees with "specialised technical and business skills" who can bring immediate, tangible technical value to the company in its areas of operations. Commenting on the emerging trends in hiring practices, says Babitha Senior HR Executive, Deccanet Designs. "The judgement criterion has definitely changed over the past few months. Companies are no longer looking at hands on skills. The thrust has shifted to domain proficiency." "Our hiring policies have remained the same, but the upside of the downturn has been a marked quantitative and qualitative improvement in the number of job applicants, meaning HR can choose their pick from a rich crop. Companies look for the perfect rather than the approximate fit. Hence, domain, domain and more domain, reinforces Asha Aiyer heading HR at Ionic Microsystems.
Companies are being discerning not only about technical profile but are also paying critical attention to the personality fit. Despite fitting the experience profile to a T, the prospects of techies, whose resumes read like a train schedule with a number of brief stops at various technical paltforms and companies, has been grounded. The tech meltdown and rise in unemployment has shifted power back to human resources managers who are no longer willing to play sugar daddy to job hoppers. Hiring managers are looking for candidates who will grow along with the company rather than take flight at the first sign of revival. "Consistency and stability is the prime virtue that companies such as Ionic Microsystems swear by. M. R. Nagraj, Member, Human Resource at Tata Elxsi commenting frankly on his company's hiring policies says: "Due to the slowdown in the IT industry there is a large supply of potential candidates in the market. These people may have bought down their salary expectations just because they do not have a job, but as the market improves they will look for a change again which is not a good sign. What we look in a candidate is stability and good attitude."
Attitude as many may rightly point out is an immeasurable, intangible quality but HR opinion is veering around certain attributes that constitute the right attitude. A good potential candidate will not look for salary but will look for work, according to MR Nagaraj, Tata Elxsi. "When we go beyond work experience, specific skills that we assess are adaptability and learnability, according to Asha HR managers at Ionic Microsystems. Adaptability, team spirit and strong communication skills constitute the good attitude list at Deccanet Designs. Companies are resorting to mandatory reference checks to ascertain the right attitude. An HR manager of a leading telecom start-up on condition of anonymity confided "We ask every prospective candidate's previous project leader "Given a chance would you hire him again. That answer can determine the fate of the prospective techie."
The pink slip that has marked India Inc's worst ever slump should not obscure the fact that hiring has not ceased. As companies turn the pressure on better technical, business and analytical skills, the techie will emerge fitter and wiser.
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