After a depressing 2020, New Year promises to bring more, better jobs

Here’s some good news on the job front: More than half of Indian companies are recruiting again.

A report prepared by the UK-based recruitment company Michael Page says that nearly 53% Indian companies are looking to hire after almost a year of economic slowdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Michael Page’s Talent Trends Report 2021 says that though businesses are still down, 60% of the companies are ready to offer salary hikes while 55% companies are considering giving bonuses. The study included 660 Indian companies and 4,600 employees from across the country.

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About 75% of technology firms are ready to increase employee strength by about 14% with the freedom of working remotely. Healthcare and life sciences, fintech and tech-based companies are among the top recruiters.

The most in-demand jobs are for engineering and data scientists, growth hackers, performance marketers, sales and business development, research and development etc.

The report suggests working remotely is no longer a problem for recruiters as they accord more importance to skill set and experience (69%) during hiring, followed by culture fit (48%), cost of hiring (31%), soft skills (13%) and location of candidate with just 12% weightage.

Not surprisingly, people in the healthcare sector can expect the highest salary growth (8%), followed by FMCG (7.6%) and e-commerce/ internet services (7.5%).

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On the other hand, the report suggests lowest salary hike in property and construction (5.3%) and industrial and manufacturing (5.9%).

When it comes to offering bonuses, banking and financial services (60%) and transport & distribution companies (60%) are ahead of all other enterprises.

Potential candidates still put remuneration and benefits as the most important factor while taking a job. The other things that matter (in decreasing order of importance) are responsibilities, growth opportunities, work culture, company brand and reputation.

About 55% of job-seekers are fine working on contract or as gig workers. About 22% of tech companies are actively looking for short-term gig workers with specific skill sets.

“As the economy moves towards recovery, companies will look at a strategy that will ensure retaining existing talent and hiring new ones to bridge the skill gap, especially specialised talent in certain key growing areas in technology and healthcare,” says Nicolas Dumoulin, managing director, Michael Page India.