Digital skills have emerged as top-most attribute in prospective employees.
Digital proficiency of candidates is working out to be the most crucial attribute companies are looking for in prospective employees.
While summing up their hiring decisions, companies are bent on ensuring that the selected candidates are capable of working in a virtual environment, are well-versed with social media, and if they have created communities on online.
Ajoy Mukherjee, global HR head at TCS, says global organisations require teams to work in a virtual environment.
“A candidate might not know much about analytics and big data. But level of awareness about social media, ability to see the big picture, and ability to work smoothly in virtual teams is necessary.”
A recent survey by HR firm Randstad states that employees’ social and digital skills, along with education and job experience, are more important now than they were five years ago.
The survey, conducted among 400 employees in India, states that about 90% of the surveyed employees expect their job requirements to be more demanding in the next five years.
Moreover, about 52% of the employees in India fear they will not be able to meet their job requirements in future, while others are committed to doing anything to deliver what their job would expect of them.
Delving further, the survey states the fear of not being able to meet job requirement is more among women (60% surveyed women), as compared with 40% men who accepted having this fear. And a vast majority of those who express such fears happen to be in the group that earns less than Rs10 lakh per year.
Hiring for on-site projects
Experts say these fears arise from a steadily growing trend wherein Indian IT firms are scaling up their hiring at their on-site locations, where clients are based.
Data with technology researcher Gartner Inc state that currently, the on-site recruitment by top Indian IT firms in the US stands at about 18,000. Gartner expects this figure to more than triple by 2016, while also predicting an increase in hiring count in European markets.
With developed countries keen to protect local jobs, Indian software firms are increasing hiring of people in countries where their clients are based. Says Moorthy K Uppaluri, CEO, Randstad India and Sri Lanka: “As companies are becoming more global, they are recruiting talent from various geographies. Companies are thus looking for candidates with effective social skills, along with digital literacy and etiquette.”
Experts say such fears also arise due to the tough competition in the job market. They say the competition will remain for the next few years, given the fact that 1.1 crore new people keep getting added to the Indian workforce every year.
“More competition will result in high expectation from the organisations, pushing up the job requirements. Employees should prepare themselves for this and hone their skills accordingly,” says Uppaluri.
The social network
World’s biggest social networking website, Facebook, has more than 75 crore active users. The number is proliferating with the advent of internet. Realising its reach, almost all companies are focusing on social media to get the word out about their product.
Recruiters’ take
An employee who is not aware of the power of the social media is missing out on what the people are talking about online. On the other hand, one fully acquainted with Twitter and Facebook has his/her pulse on the ‘in’ thing. Such awareness helps a company shape its policy, alter its product or strategies to suit the sensibilities of the people. This is why tech savvy people are an asset.
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