Indian IT outsourcing companies till now billed offshore clients in ‘man days’ or ‘man hours’ depending on number of people working on their projects. This led to bigger man force and more candidates on bench as the companies needed a buffer in case attrition rate went up. But this trend is now changing as the industry increasingly adopts automation tools to do repetitive and low-level jobs.
India is no longer eyed as a low-cost jobs land as focus is shifting on product companies more than IT service firms. Niche areas such as e-commerce, artificial intelligence and big data are becoming in high demand and others especially fresh graduates, may find it tougher to find job unless they acquire new skills and fast. With new age intelligent systems and cloud computing power, learning curve of employees is shortened and you do not need to set up a new team whenever a new project comes in.
If you previously had one person managing 10 accounts, technology makes it possible for him to now handle more than 50 accounts. Thus, the productivity is higher and now you won’t need as many people as you did earlier. Also, delivery models are changing and evolving as a result of which, smaller projects with higher worth are now available in the market which demand a higher value per candidate.
New technologies and services have made many roles redundant and companies look at it as an opportunity to improve efficiency as a single candidate can now learn multiple skills and offer more value for money. The need to enhance skill sets also leads to a change in the hiring mix and companies now concentrate more on hiring those with experience than a workforce straight out of campus.
Although this may look like a bleak picture for freshers, it is also an opportunity. A fresh graduate with same skill set (which is quite easy to learn) would be preferred over an experienced candidate as the fresher would be more cost effective and less risky profile.
