There is a growing concern within the corporate community about the non-availability of talent pool in tier-I cities and the need to look at tier-II cities. More often than not, we hear companies saying saturated market, talent pool shortage and the like in tier-I cities, which is a compelling reason to go out of these cities.
In sharp contrast to the above opinion, I strongly feel there is a minimal need for companies to look beyond home for talent acquisition. If only companies can widen the qualifying criteria and not the disqualifying criteria, there would be a bigger market with a widened talent pool available. Age, pre-qualification and related work experience, dual employment policy, qualification etc, are the active deterrents that makes the employable market shrink to an abysmally low percentage, which is in single digit.
If we compare the US and the Indian markets, there exists striking dissimilarities between the two countries. Professionals are neither discouraged nor disqualified due to age barriers. You have two people in an organisation performing similar tasks but from diverse age groups. Similarly, candidates are not disqualified due to educational qualifications in the US.
Corporates like Microsoft do not disqualify potential candidates based on qualification whereas, home-grown, traditional and old economy companies from India do not have this open policy and accommodative approach. If only corporates can look beyond readymade fitment and accommodate potential candidates who have a ?can do approach? as opposed to ?has done? approach, we can scale greater heights.
Moreover, corporates have to make a paradigm shift in their traditional hiring strategy and benchmark themselves against developed and mature markets like the US, where the hiring talent is ?selection-oriented? as against India where it is ?rejection-oriented.?
Moreover, another hallmark of Indian companies, particularly in the IT space is that, they are absolutely closed to considering a candidate from non-technical background for technical positions. There are many instances of people hailing from non-technical background and perform ing better. To adopt this approach, corporates need to have a very strong ?training and development? arm either within outside the organisation. It acts both as a retention strategy, and induces a loyalty factor within individuals. At the same time, it has the advantage of tuning and honing these candidates according to the organisational needs.
We need to set right our home first, where we have tremendous opportunities and potential, and develop a broader base by increasing the size of the pie before we look outside for potential opportunities. Its time, we start wearing our thinking hats and re-engineer our hiring policies. Sooner or later, we would come out of our skepticism and cynicism and can stop looking outwards and start looking inwards to have a broader perspective.
?The writer is CEO,Paradigm Consulting