The slowdown in hiring in IT software and services sector, which houses some of India’s top recruiters such as TCS, Infosys and Wipro, is likely to continue for the next two-three quarters, said Sekhar Garisa, CEO of job recruitment platform foundit (formerly Monster).
“We see that the softness in IT hiring will continue at least for the next two quarters. That doesn’t mean that hiring isn’t happening, it means that the hiring is happening at a number which is much lower than before,” Garisa told FE in an interaction.
Indian IT giants had slowed down hiring this year in response to a sluggish revenue growth across the industry, resulting from a dampened macroeconomic environment, which made clients more cautious on discretionary spending and dragged down deal numbers. Before the slowdown set in around the middle of 2022, the previous couple of years had seen robust hiring in IT companies as increased adoption of cloud-based services had fattened their toplines.
“We also see green shoots in non-IT hiring, specifically around BFSI, retail, manufacturing,” Garisa said, adding that most of their non-IT customers have aggressive growth plans that’s driven by increased consumption and robust demand. The company has historically had more IT sector customers, but it is now confident that their AI-driven platform revamp will attract more non-IT clients as well.
Besides these, there is also a more technology-induced slowdown in demand for certain jobs. “For example, you probably don’t need as many designers, as many content writers, as technology can help make some of those jobs more efficient,” Garisa noted.
AI-driven renovation
With the AI boom, hiring platforms such as Naukri and LinkedIn have included AI-based capabilities in their offerings, that largely help in drafting emails or optimising searches.
foundit, a part of staffing company Quess Corp, has also revamped its platform to include AI-based tools such as its generative AI-based writing tool that helps draft a large number of personalised emails.
The platform will also provide insights such as the candidate’s growth in each company and their frequency of job change, among others. “We also use generative AI to plug in the right contextual synonyms so that the recruiter doesn’t have to remember all the different variations of the same job title or skill while searching for candidates,” Garisa said.
The company has already beta tested the new platform with 100 of their 7,000 customers, where they recorded an 80% increase in recruiter productivity, 2x jump in candidate response rate while reducing costs by 4.5x.
Garisa noted that foundit, which holds a 10-12% market share in India, has been growing at a CAGR of 50% over the last two years and plans to continue this growth rate over the next few years. While its annual revenue run rate stands at about $25 million, the company is expected to break even at the end of this financial year.