IT’s in a slump, but non-­tech companies happy to hire top talent

Global manufacturing companies including automakers are hiring software experts for their research and development centres in India, said staffing firms. Companies across sectors are also hiring experts in large numbers to drive digitisation. Most of the demand is for experienced employees.

Multinationals in the manufacturing sector are increasingly setting up research and technology (R&T) and R&D centres in India, said Sunil Chemmankotil, chief executive at staffing firm TeamLease Digital.

Around 20% of the lateral movement from IT firms have been absorbed into captive units of MNCs and non-tech firms that are going digital, according to data from Quess Corp. The demand for technology talent has grown almost three-fold across the non-tech segments since the pandemic, said Vijaya Sivaram, CEO of Quess IT Staffing.

“It is not big in terms of the share of jobs in the non-tech sector, but still it is growing at a very rapid pace, which means that the Indian enterprise ecosystem or the Indian service ecosystem is also investing in a big way in technology,” said Sivaram, adding that this increased pace of demand will continue for another two years at least.

The slowdown in the tech sector is, in fact, helping these recruiters, as the intense competition for talent has eased and outsized salary increases have mostly disappeared.

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While hikes for job switches currently stand at 15-10% on an average, in case of specialised manufacturing R&T and R&D recruitment, it could be as high as 50-60% for mid-level engineers.Even though non-tech companies will concentrate on their core competencies, use of technology is becoming increasingly important, especially in the fields of healthcare, finance, retail, and transportation, said AR Ramesh, director – managed services & professional staffing at Adecco India.

“We predict 15-20% hikes on an average in demand if we move from tech to non-tech sectors. Around 10% job openings in non-tech sectors are now for such technology roles,” said Ramesh. There is solid demand for tech talent with expertise in areas like data analysis, software development, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence, he said.

“Mostly, these companies hire lateral talent as they need experienced resources to make the best use of their proprietary data for in-house products. Freshers are needed but the lateral demand is much higher,” said Sivaram.

Several manufacturing companies are moving to India and setting up small-scale facilities here because of the talent availability in India, Chemmankotil of TeamLease said. For instance, Pune is one of those hubs where there are a lot of global manufacturing and automotive companies. “They also understood that instead of going with services companies directly for such low volumes, which may not be cost efficient, they can themselves set up small scale centres along with their manufacturing setup here,” he said.

Upgrading HR policies

Some of this demand is translating into a need to look into new HR policies, for traditional sector companies like manufacturing to match the pay scale offered by technology companies, said TeamLease.

Recruiters are increasingly becoming aware of the difference in not only the pay scale but also the kind of facilities that software talent is used to within the software services and products ecosystem.

“The techies cannot be hired at the same scale as their legacy employees. In addition, the employees demand bi-annual hikes, work-from-home options, infrastructure benefits, high allowances that are now a complete overhaul task for the HR departments that are looking to revise policies and measures,” said Chemmankotil.