Temp zone talent is HR’s new focus

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India's burgeoning IT-BPO industry has generated scope for employing more part-timers like housewives and students who can add to the talent pool of the skilled work force. As the industry appears set to grow by over 33% and touch the $64-billion mark by the end of the current fiscal, flexi-timings for those who may not wish to be fully employed has become a distinct possibility.

For instance, Infosys BPO has recently introduced a policy to increase the number of part-time employees in the company. Infosys vice-president and group HR head Nandita Gurjar says the BPO now aims to have 1% to 2% of its fresh recruits as part-timers in the next financial year.

According to her, part-timing helped expand the available talent pool, meet requirements for jobs that do not need full-timers, and take care of the women staff that cannot work full-time.

Currently, the temp staff in the industry would be 2% of the total work force, according to experts, and the share of part-timers would be far less although the IT sector is one that does not seek major educational qualifications of aspirants for them to earn big bucks. You could, for instance, be a college student with basic computer and vocabulary skills to draw a monthly salary of over Rs 10,000. But that's not all in terms of opportunities.

The chairman and managing director of TeamLease Services Pvt Ltd, India's largest temporary staffing company, Manish Sabharwal, says, “IT/ ITeS companies have not really needed to have variable pay or temporary employees because for them, it has been a ‘one-way rocket to the moon’ due to steady growth in revenue. However, over the next five years, a large number of IT companies will start using temporary workers as the market is getting a little saturated.”

TeamLease vice-president Rajesh AR says, “With cost-cutting becoming everyone's priority, companies may explore part-timers as an alternate talent pool, since billing is on an hourly basis. Part-timing is an on-demand type of employment. Youngsters who want to earn while they learn and also mothers who want to return to work after their maternity leave, prefer part-timing. For the employer, it is an option to save on wages that he might have to pay a full-timer during off-peak hours.” For Teamlease, less than 0.5% of its associates are part-timers.