International Recruitment Trends

It is apparent that the most significant changes to recruitment involve the development of professional employment organisations (P.E.O.’s), the use of email and the internet for sourcing jobs and candidates and the continuing trend towards contractors and temporary staff.

The recruitment industry is gearing up for these changes by developing strategic alliances and global partnering to ensure access to the best candidates world wide.

Professionalism, technical competence and the development of world best practice are the hallmarks of successful recruitment consultancies. Organisations hiring staff continue to undergo massive change in striving to be competitive and profitable.

Many organisations have moved to outsourcing all of their non-core activities.

P.E.O.’s have emerged to manage multiple employee groups for companies outsourcing the human resource function. All employees from unskilled positions through to the CEO can, and are, outsourced.

This concept is quite different to the typical approach used by most temp agencies. Organisations of any size can benefit from this approach and employees, particularly those working in smaller companies, have much to gain from the combined benefits that a P.E.O. can offer as a large employer.

Increasingly, recruitment agencies are moving towards sourcing candidates through internet job boards enabling recruitment activity to occur in real time. The ability to recruit internationally has been a huge development and boon for organisations using these services.

In Asia, the concept of “a job for life” is rapidly becoming a vague memory as large scale retrenchment occurs and unemployment figures rise. The growth in temporary and contract positions is a continuing trend and one that is already emerging as a significant growth area in Australia.

Unfortunately, in Australia this growth has also brought with it unparalleled growth in the number of temporary hire firms, many of which lack the professionalism and skills required.

As there is no licensing requirement for recruitment firms, virtually anyone can set up a business with little accountability for their actions. The closest we have to licensing in Australia is membership to the Recruitment and Consulting Services Association (R.C.S.A.), the peak industry body throughout Australia and New Zealand.

This is a professional development and self regulatory body made up of member firms which adhere to a strict code of ethics and conduct. The dismantling of the former Commonwealth Employment Service has resulted in confusion in the marketplace and inaccurate perceptions which pool all employment services under the one umbrella.

The fact is that only a very small number of private employment agencies are part of the new “Job Network”. The important philosophical difference between these services and the vast majority of private agencies is the focus.

Job Network agencies are contracted to find jobs for unemployed job seekers, therefore their key focus is on the job seeker.

Private agencies provide a service to employers using their skill, expertise, recruitment systems and networks to source the right candidates whether currently employed or not for their client companies.

The focus in this case is on the employer. This distinction may be subtle but it represents a quantum difference in the two approaches and, consequently, the quality of the service provided to meet the expectations of employers.

Information technology is a major growth area and positions will continue to emerge globally for skilled and qualified personnel. It is pleasing to note that Australia is at the forefront in many areas within the recruitment profession.

In particular, we have a strong emphasis on delivering a quality service and in ensuring the technical competence of consultants. Our industrial relations environment has meant that in Australia there has been an emphasis on ensuring that the right staff are sourced which has resulted in quality recruitment techniques that are now in demand by overseas firms.

*source: jobseekersadvice.com

Recent trends in Recruitment

The following trends are being seen in recruitment:

OUTSOURCING
In India, the HR processes are being outsourced from more than a decade now. A company may draw required personnel from outsourcing firms. The outsourcing firms help the organisation by the initial screening of the candidates according to the needs of the organisation and creating a suitable pool of talent for the final selection by the organisation. Outsourcing firms develop their human resource pool by employing people for them and make available personnel to various companies as per their needs. In turn, the outsourcing firms or the intermediaries charge the organisations for their services.


Advantages of outsourcing are:

1. Company need not plan for human resources much in advance.
2. Value creation, operational flexibility and competitive advantage
3. Turning the management's focus to strategic level processes of HRM
4. Company is free from salary negotiations, weeding the unsuitable resumes/candidates.
5. Company can save a lot of its resources and time

POACHING/RAIDING
“Buying talent” (rather than developing it) is the latest mantra being followed by the organisations today. Poaching means employing a competent and experienced person already working with another reputed company in the same or different industry; the organisation might be a competitor in the industry. A company can attract talent from another firm by offering attractive pay packages and other terms and conditions, better than the current employer of the candidate. But it is seen as an unethical practice and not openly talked about. Indian software and the retail sector are the sectors facing the most severe brunt of poaching today. It has become a challenge for human resource managers to face and tackle poaching, as it weakens the competitive strength of the firm.


E-RECRUITMENT
Many big organizations use Internet as a source of recruitment. E-recruitment is the use of technology to assist the recruitment process. They advertise job vacancies through worldwide web. The job seekers send their applications or curriculum vitae i.e. CV through e mail using the Internet. Alternatively job seekers place their CV’s in worldwide web, which can be drawn by prospective employees depending upon their requirements.

Advantages of recruitment are:
1. Low cost.
2. No intermediaries
3. Reduction in time for recruitment.
4. Recruitment of right type of people.
5. Efficiency of recruitment process.

India’s Best Places to Work

Software application developer RMSI has come up trumps as India’s best workplace in a study on India’s Best Companies to Work For 2009 released on Tuesday night. The Noida-based firm is followed by Intel and Federal Express at No 2 and No 3 spots, respectively. Aviva, Google, Qualcomm, Marriott, AmEx, NetApp and NTPC are others that make up the dream list of the Top 10 in that order. Jointly rolled out by The Economic Times and The Great Places to Work(R) Institute India, the study — in its sixth year — picked up 50 best workplaces in India.

The Best workplaces were honoured at a gala award ceremony in Mumbai, attended by Who’s Who of the HR fraternity in the country. It can’t get bigger than this. As many as 373 companies registered for the study from across 25 industry verticals to sniff out the best companies to work for in India, making it the largest of its kind ever.

While top companies celebrate, others can take heart, too. For this year, the survey has unleashed as many as seven special categories such as excellence in CSR, where IT behemoth Infosys makes a dent. Similarly, in terms of management credibility, HDFC rules supreme. And if that’s not enough, many more have made their mark within their respective industry verticals by notching up pole position, even if they don’t figure in the Top 25. Take the case of Monsanto — the agro-input major may not figure in the Top 25, but has emerged as a clear leader among five participants from the agro-based/dairy/poultry industry.

Speaking at the event, Prasenjit Bhattacharya, CEO of Great Place to Work(R) Institute, said: “To the best of my knowledge, this is the only study to have got the registration figures certified by an independent third-party audit firm.” This year, the study was certified by Suresh Surana & Associates, the sixth-largest accounting and consultancy firm in India. Mr Bhattacharya added that India’s Best Companies to Work For study will shortly become the largest study of its kind in the world.

“If you want to benchmark your workplace culture with the best in your industry in the country and globally, you cannot afford to miss this study.” Apart from a more equitable distribution, the study uniquely relied on employee feedback with as much as two-third weightage given to this mechanism. In other words, the study not only observed, recorded and highlighted some of the best HR practices in the country, but also reviewed these practices as seen from the prism of employees.
When compared with the top 100 companies in the US, the top 50 Indian companies are not far behind. A wide swathe of metrics, from corporate governance to work-life balance, and from empowerment to equity, offers axiomatic proof. Without doubt, the study highlights that India can only grow if it leverages its human and intellectual capital.

The Top 25 -1. RMSI
2. Intel India
3. FedEx
4. Aviva Life Insurance
5. Google India
6. Qualcomm India Pvt. Ltd.
7. Marriott Hotels India
8. American Express
9. NetApp India
10. NTPC
11. Bharti Airtel
12. Agilent Technologies
13. Classic Stripes Ltd.
14. ITC Ltd. - Hotels Division
15. Godrej Consumer Products Ltd.
16. Hilti India Pvt. Ltd.
17. Corbus India Pvt. Ltd.
18. Tavant Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
19. Mindtree Ltd.
20. iNautix Technologies India Pvt. Ltd.
21. Sabre Travel Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
22. Johnson & Johnson Ltd.
23. Silver Spark Apparels Ltd.
24. Titan Industries Ltd.
25. Mando India Ltd.

*Source - Economic Times