HR SPECIAL....TALENT HUNT

TALENT HUNT 

Companies struggle to close skill gaps at entry level

Mumbai: Where does one get job-ready entry-level talent? That’s a question that has been bothering companies across industries now. The issue as sumes significance as compa nies are spending more time on training entry-level talent to make them job ready. At times, even after three-six months of training, skill gaps have been noted. In a country where graduates are passing out in greater numbers each year, companies say this has nothing to do with the num bers, but skill-sets.
    While this has been more pronounced in sectors like IT specialized sectors such as pharmaceuticals have also started facing a dearth of tal ent even as they chalk out their expansion plans. The situa tion has sprung up an opportu nity for a new set of entrepre neurs to train students in specific skill-sets while they are still in college. However with no real solution in sight companies are left with no op tion but to invest large sums in training. Pharma company Lupin spends Rs 25,000 on ev ery employee, while Hexaware Technologies spends Rs 30,000 per head every year.
    “All good pharmaceutical companies are growing, so there is a big need for talent in this industry. Most large com panies are in expansion mode and are setting up new plants Being a research-intensive in dustry, there is a need for more technically skilled and knowl edge workers. India does not have a shortage of people. But there is an acute shortage of good, employable and indus try-ready people,” said Diva kar Kaza, president, human resources, Lupin.
    Pharma companies histor ically have hired people from science and pharmacy back grounds and less of engineers On the supply side, the univer sities churn out a large num ber of graduates and post graduates in science and pharmacy but very few of them are employable. “While the abso lute numbers look encourag ing, industry-ready candi dates with the required life skills and technical compe tence are very low. Therefore companies end up investing heavily in technical training and life skills centers...almost like parallel universities to make already educated people industry ready,” said Kaza.
    Lupin hires around 2,000 freshers every year in domes tic sales, manufacturing and
research. Every year, a 1,000 people go through a training programme for two weeks at its residential training centre in Lonavala. The programme lasts for two weeks and is man datory for every new recruit before they get on to their jobs The training in Lonavala is fol lowed up by another two-three weeks of on-the-job training at the manufacturing plants “We spend Rs 25,000 on every employee, almost equivalent to a fresher’s two months sala ry,” said Kaza.
    The IT industry faces a similar problem. Hexaware Technologies runs a two month foundation training programme (FTP) for fresh ers. The first month involves training in certain basic soft ware skills, while the second month has a specific training programme. “We spend Rs 30,000 per head every year,” said Deependra Chumble chief people officer of the company, which inducted 800 odd freshers in 2011.
    Chumble said the company engages with colleges on the kind of curriculum that is re quired to be introduced to en sure students are job-ready when they pass out, but ex perts believe the problem is larger than that. PurpleLeap a Pearson Educomp Company which specializes in providing ‘ready to deploy’ entry-level talent to the IT industry in par ticular, works within college premises to train students with specific skills to enhance their employability.
    “Even in a bad year, IT com panies are talking about hir ing in large numbers. But there are deficits in skill gaps. At one of our clients even nine months of training was not enough to bridge the gap in skills. Fresh hiring has grown nearly three times for the IT industry. Five years ago, companies used to hire from the top 10 institutes Where are the additional em ployable people going to come from? With growing demand for people, companies have no choice now but to dip deep er into the source of talent pool. From 90 percentiles companies are now hiring 70 percentiles. That’s where the problem arises in skill gaps,” said Amit Bansal, CEO, Pur pleLeap.
    Besides the curriculum experts also believe that the problem lies in the manner in which internships are framed “We need to have longer in ternships during an MBA. We currently have 1.5-2 months summer internship, while in European business schools it’s longer at about two six month internships. Another thing that needs to change is that Indian business schools are driven more by theory and real life is very different,” said Tulika Tripathi, managing di rector, Michael Page in India, a specialist recruitment firm.
    Tripathi believes compa nies should invest more on providing live projects to MBA students, where currently lit tle attention is paid to career management.
GETTING JOB-READY

• Students’ lack of technical competence at entry level negates advantage of huge numbers of grads churned out by varsities

• Cos are forced to set up parallel universities to make already educated youth ‘industry-ready’

• Most affected sectors include pharma, IT where recruits have to go through mandatory in-house training modules
• With skill gaps appearing even after 3-6 months of training, entrepreneurs offer to train college students in specific skill-sets

Namrata Singh TOI130107