Headhunting and Talent War

ET reports on the phenomenon growth which headhunting services have seen over the last few years.

Outsourced hiring, or hiring through third party recruiters, will be an over $1 billion industry this year. And it’s growing extremely rapidly. Such hiring is only a decade old in India. It grew slowly initially, but in 2005-06, the business saw exponential growth, posting a turnover of Rs 3,922.32 crore, against Rs 630.98 crore in the year before. The industry this year is seen to be growing at about 40%. So by the fiscal-end, it would go well past $1 billion, according to a study by the Executive Recruiters’ Association (ERA).

Although there is no clear breakup of which sector would contribute to what extent, it is estimated that IT will claim the largest chunk at 30%, followed by telecom/infrastructure, retail /realty and manufacturing/utilities spaces each at 15%, ITES at 10% and others at 15%.

Clearly the boom in services and growth of industry has resulted in huge requirement at middle and senior level positions. The entry level positions are being filled by campus recruitment initiative. Headhunting services are largely being used to fill niche and middle level positions.Another report suggets that the skilled Indian professionals are finding an alternative in continental Europe. The non-English speaking countries of Europe such as Germany, the Netherlands and France are increasingly wooing Indians into their workforce.

In fact, many of these countries are trying to showcase their multicultural business environment to attract global skilled workers. “Holland, for instance, is very comfortable for an international skilled workforce since English is a business language,” says Dirk Bakker, president of the India Netherlands Business Association.

So the indicators are clear that the war for talent is truly global in nature.