Cash in on talent scouting

Abhishek Agarwal    

The Indian Staffing market size has grown exponentially over the past few years as Indian Staffing Federation estimated its value of about EUR 3.6 Billion. The organised retail sector, construction and real estate, BFSI, and Automobile sector are likely to create 40,000 to 12, 62,120 jobs by 2021. With this, the talent acquisition industry is sure to capitalise while the requirement of skilled HR professionals is bound to create a myriad of career opportunities.  

Organisations, in every sector, are betting on highly-skilled and qualified talents who can better address their business requirements. But, India still is facing the issues such as unemployment, lower productivity, and unskilled population which make companies picky about their workforce. As a consequent result, the companies find it hard to manage the stringent talent acquisition and recruitment processes and prefer to outsource them to either third-party staffing companies or hire an experienced HR manager for the purpose. This has led to the ever-growing demand for professionals in the talent acquisition industry who can sift through the pool of candidates and hand-pick the best of them to the company. 

Veering towards talent acquisition industry

In talent acquisition and recruitment industry, there are plenty of well-paid career options such as Human Resource (HR) Managers, HR consultants, HR Analysts HR Technology vendors, Employee Relations Manager, HR Training and Development, and HR generalists. In a corporate, HR departments hold the responsibilities of sourcing candidates for a various job opening, recruiting them, retaining them, improving their performance, and motivating them. They also keep their watchful eyes on the employees within the organization to make the workplace free from any harassment and implement the company laws and rules from time to time. The roles and responsibilities are wide-ranging from company size and goals. And, each of these tasks is daunting per se, for which HR tools and software are designed to smooth the process. Therefore, the skills and qualifications required to fill the vacant seats in the HR department of a company are wide-ranging and continually evolving. 

As technology is, nonetheless, transforming the talent acquisition industry, the web designers and software developers can also enter the market segment and bid on their technical skills. Organizations such as HR consultancy firms always prefer to have a customized ATS system and HR tools, which help them work efficiently. 

Salary & perks 

For a fresher working on different roles in the industry, the pay scale varies from Rs 2.5 to 4.5 lakh depending on the skills and knowledge of the candidate. However, the salary package increases with time and work experience. Organisations, in order to retain the employees, tend to propose increments once or twice a year along with the financial rewards and incentives, maternity or paternity leaves, flexible jobs, etc. Talent acquisition and recruitment industry provide numerous career progression and learning and development opportunities.  From an HR generalist, one can become Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) whose compensation package ranges from Rs 80 lakh to Rs 1.5 crore. As the job of an HR person is "deal with people," working professionals emerge as confident and dynamic personality ready to handle any situation of crisis.

Qualifications & skills 

• To seek suitable jobs in talent acquisition and recruitment industry, the candidate should have a Bachelor's degree and Master's degree preferably in the niche disciplines of HR. 
• Many candidates also pursue professional certification courses to add value to their CV. 
• Coming down to skills required, the candidate ought to possess valuable leadership skills, good verbal as well as written communication in at least two languages, English and Hindi, intrapreneurship and entrepreneurship skills, problem-solving abilities, anger management, and rejection-handling skills. 
• Sound knowledge of finance and accounts and taxations policies and technical knowledge of various HR tools and software compliments the eligibility of the candidate.  
• Nowadays, cutting-edge applicant tracking systems with real-time predictive analytics can be afforded by businesses worldwide to tap only the best-fit candidates for the job. Professionals in HR department thus are required to work on such tech-enabled platforms. 
• The candidates who seek to work in this industry must know all in-outs of such systems. Also, if one wished to be an entrepreneur in the talent acquisition industry, such qualifications and skills would also be conducive to his success. 

—The writer is Senior Vice President, Judge Group India.