COVID-19 – THE NEW NORMAL—INDUSTRY SCENARIO

The world is facing humanity’s biggest crisis since World War II. Almost every country has been affected by the devastating Coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Undoubtedly, this Coronavirus has put the world economy at a major risk. Businesses and individuals alike have had to adapt rapidly to cope with uncertainty and anxiety in a seemingly unending ordeal. The perseverance of businesses and people has led to the emergence of a new landscape- a ‘New Normal’ in which the global communities continue to survive.

There are several channels through which the COVID-19 outbreak has affected Indian economy. The disruption of supply chains is a major one. Job loss is on the rise along with the slowdown in manufacturing and services activities. Workers have come back to their home in faraway places, thereby leaving the upcoming harvest in a state of uncertainty. Lack of orders and initiatives has lead to massive trade contraction. Besides, there has also been a disruption in air travel, fall in travel and tourism, contraction in outdoor entertainment industries and rise in bankruptcy.

The following sectors have been adversely affected by the pandemic:

  1. Apparel & Textile Industry has seen a disruption in labour supply, raw material unavailability, working capital constraints and restricted demand due to limited movement of people and purchasing ability.
  2. Auto Sector(including automobile & auto parts)has been facing challenges on account of lack of demand, global recession and failing income levels.
    As per McKinsey & Company, global trends impacting the automotive sector are as follows:

    • Global supply chain disruption
    • Cautious demand outlook
    • Shift in mobility trends
    • A resilient aftermarket
    • A potential auto investment
    • Deal activity to grow
  3. Manufacturing Sector : India offers a strong manufacturing base. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it has announced some incentives to global firms that seek to set up new operations or expand their existing operations. While India offers a range of advantages as manufacturing destinations, capitalizing on these opportunities requires a multipronged strategic approach across three broad dimensions:
    • Understanding the local regulations
    • Getting the location right
    • Building an India-specific organization structure         
  4. Building & Construction are generally leveraged and they are burdened with high-interest payments and lack of sales.
  5. Aviation & Tourism Sector has also been deprived of direct Government intervention. Since lockdown, people have stopped travelling apart from very essential travel.
  6. The Paper Industry has almost been wiped out as the world looks to adopt more environmentally friendly ways to live. Digital is the new normal.

For many business organizations, technology is considered to           be a support function with it being used as a means to get to an end. Following the pandemic, this has changed as technology has become the frontline requirement in most organizations. It’s importance can be comparable to that of revenue-generating functions such as sales and business development.

The next 4-5 years are going to be the golden period for media & entertainment. 3D/4D chatrooms and conference rooms are going to emerge rapidly. The largest chunk of media spending will shift from television to digital. Print media will cease to exist.

Businesses will experience an increase in productivity due to reduced staff. Remote work will see an uptick. The burden on local transport will ease.

High End Technology with an uninterrupted high-speed internet powering the video lectures, online projects, etc is now no more an option for the students since physical classrooms are minimal and will be kept that way in post Covid 19 scenario as well.

Coming to the professional sector,  Remote Working and Work from Home seem to accelerate as  companies are giving more stress upon two factors-Health and Hygiene. In this way, productivity has risen since commuting time, expenses and energy are saved. However, to ensure all these, advanced technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning & Deep Learning , automation, robotics, augmented reality, Block-Chain and 5G will be the most coveted for all the industrial sectors as every industrial segment starting from BFSI, Information technology, Manufacturing, Health care, Supply Chain & Logistics, Power etc have to develop and adopt new business models.

To conclude, this is the time to rethink and reset everything. Never before has the world come to a standstill where one can pick apart the moving pieces. If we rethink everything properly, we can overcome the challenges faced by the people in this pandemic such as environmental change, disfigured lifestyle and inequality.

Need Customer Based Brand Equity? 5 Points To Consider

Building a customer-based strong brand is very important for every placement consultant and executive search agency. Few of the benefits you can reap by focusing on brand equity is greater loyalty from customers, your placement consultant won’t become exposed to the competitive marketing crises and even customers will show positive response to increase or decrease in the fees. Since customer based brand equity has so much to offer, it’s time for recruitment agencies to know the points they need to focus on.

Few Vital Points To Consider When Looking For Customer Based Brand Equity For An Executive Search Agency

  • Brand Identity And Awareness

If you are willing to achieve the right identity for your brand, you need to make your brand important to your customers. Check whether customers can easily recall or recognise your brand. Brand awareness is when customers can link the name, symbol or logo or your brand with certain associations. They should know what type of services you are actually selling under that brand. Unless the recruitment services are specially designed to fulfil their requirements, developing brand equity will become difficult.

  • Brand Meaning

The right customer-based brand equity for a placement consultant can be created when they can establish a brand image which can reflect what exactly the brand characterizes. In short, the image of your brand should reflect its meaning. You can generally distinguish brand meaning in two categories, the abstract imagery related considerations and the performance-related considerations. These categories actually exist in the mind of the customers.

  • Brand Judgements

Brand judgements are basically the personal opinions of your customers and how they evaluate your brand. They might form various types of opinions about a brand after putting together all their imagery and performance. Though customers can make various judgements about a brand, there are four types of brand judgement you need to focus on if you are looking for Customer Based Brand Equity for an Executive Search Agency. They are brand quality, brand credibility, brand consideration and brand superiority.

  • Brand Feelings

How customers emotionally react or respond to a brand is known as brand feelings. These feelings are the result of the marketing program for the brand. Not every executive search agency is aware of the fact that the feelings your customers have about your brand can be either intense or mild. When the feelings are positive, it means that your brand has attained social approval. They might have used the service themselves or has been referred by others.

  • Brand Relationship

Brand relationships primarily focus on how well your customers can identify your brand and their ultimate relationship. Your focus should be on making your customers feel that they can synchronise well with itS. The two dimensions of characterizing brand relationships are activity and intensity.

Since you are now aware of the vital points an executive search agency has to consider when looking for customer based brand equity, it’s time you too focus on them and give your business a boost.

How Psychological Assessment Helps Effective Recruiting

Hiring and training new employees can be an expensive process. To help keep turnover to a minimum, some companies employ psychological testing to ensure that potential employees are suitable before hiring them. Psychological tests, however, are not only used during the hiring process. Some companies use these tests to monitor the continued suitability of employees who have been on the job for some time.

placement-consultants-for-corporate-companies

Purpose

The purpose of psychological testing is to make more informed hiring decisions. Many companies consult outside companies to give and assess these tests in an effort to keep the tests unbiased and to help guard against lawsuits. Psychological testing is used to determine, in particular, the ability of potential employees to work under stressful conditions and to assess the potential of a prospective employee to handle the job effectively under those conditions.

Benefits

The use of psychological testing can lower the risk of a company being sued, according to Mike Poskey of ZeroRisk HR, a company that specializes in strategies and solutions for greater employee retention. One reason is that psychological testing can help reduce the number of problem employees. Psychological testing can be particularly useful for jobs with a high-stress factor such as law enforcement, the medical field or firefighting because these tests can help determine a potential employee’s abilities to work under stress. Such screening can help a company hire more suitable employees and save on the cost of high employee turnover.

recruitment-agency-in-Kolkata

Validity

No psychological test is ever completely valid or reliable. According to Dr Wade Silverman, of the Florida Psychological  Association, psychological tests are “as valid as standard medical tests” and are administered and interpreted by clinical and forensic psychologists. Even then, a proper psychological assessment requires a battery of tests given over time because one or two tests may be contradictory. With this in mind, the validity of tests administered in one sitting is suspect.

Legality

However, use of psychological testing by recruitment agencies may have legal implications, based on the country, state or area the organization belongs to.

Let us take the example of USA. Psychological testing is legal in most states in America, provided the tests are administered by a professional organization or a psychologist. Some states in the USA have specific privacy acts that prevent a company from forcing employees to participate in psychological testing. Terminating an employee who refuses a psychological test in one of these states could result in a lawsuit based upon a breech of privacy law. On the other hand, some states, including California, require psychological exams, particularly in law enforcement and similar fields. Since the Americans with Disabilities Act limits the use of tests by prospective employers, avoid using tests designed to reveal disabilities, particularly schizophrenia and manic depression. Such tests can lead to claims of discrimination based on medical issues.

Therefore, a recruiting agency for companies in India or in any other country is advised to check the law of the land before including psychological tests as a part of their HR process.

Trending Recruitment Practices in India & Road Ahead

The Indian economy is growing at an attractive rate. As a result, the demand for talented professionals is increasing across many sectors to deliver rapid and sustained growth.

Therefore, Indian recruiters will be facing significant pressure in attracting and retaining top talent. In fact, experts found that 79% of Indian organisations project increased hiring for 2016-17. This seems to be a critical time for Indian recruiters to evolve and be as innovative and nimble as possible. In this article, we have broken down the 5 key recruitment trends happening in India right now and some key actions Indian recruiters can take in this new landscape.

Recruiting agency for companies in India

Trend #1. Increasing Gap Between Hiring Volume and Budget

After a positive year with the gap between hiring volume and recruitment budget getting narrower, yesteryears saw this gap get significantly wider. This means Indian recruiting leaders must do more with less and invest wisely check out loanstip.co.uk. This finding from LinkedIn’s India Recruiting Trends report makes it all the more difficult for recruitment teams to overcome the obstacles associated with attracting top quality candidates from high-demand talent pools.

The disparity between volume and budget means recruitment teams need to use creative and cost-efficient ways to meet their goals. Some of the trends that follow are evidence of this, with more companies focusing on less costly channels such as employer branding and employee referrals so as to not break the bank.

HR consultants in Kolkata

Trend #2. Quality of Hire

One of the key priorities for HR consultants in Kolkata for the foreseeable future is optimising ‘quality of hire’. According to LinkedIn, talent leaders believe ‘quality of hire’ is the most valuable performance metric to track hiring effectiveness. While the urgency to fill open positions led to ‘time to fill’ getting the biggest increase in attention over the past year, ‘quality of hire’ remains the most valuable key performance indicator for recruiters.

Common challenge recruiters face is finding the best way to measure this metric. And there seems to be no unified way to measure this, with Indian recruiters tracking ‘quality of hire’ in various different ways. Time to productivity, new hire performance evaluation and early attrition are all used to determine this success metric. Aligned with this, hiring manager effectiveness in identifying the best talent is a key enabler in optimising this metric. This means employers need to build the interviewing capabilities of hiring managers.

Trend #3. Employer Branding

With the increased demand for talent for many economic sectors in India, recruiters are beginning to realise the positive impact a well defined and consistently communicated employer brand can have in attracting top candidates. With senior leadership starting to take a keen interest in their companies’ employer brands, this is starting to grow as a big priority.

Almost every recruiting agency for companies in India believes that recruiters need to start building cross-functional relationships, specifically with marketing. This will help them in order to build attractive employer brands and gain a competitive edge. According to LinkedIn’s report, social media is on the biggest upward trend when it comes to employer branding tools, with traditional channels like LinkedIn and websites falling in popularity. Also becoming more popular is using employees as brand ambassadors who can help communicate a distinguished employer brand.

HR consultants in Ahmedabad

Trend #4. Employee Referrals

Using employees as brand ambassadors is the perfect segue into the next big Indian trend: employee referrals. Employee referrals as a source of hire in India have grown in size and importance, especially in the last year. Reasons for this include the need to reduce cost per hire and getting access to passive talent that would be otherwise not available for recruiters. A big finding in the LinkedIn study was that India is leveraging employee referrals extremely well and that they actually lead usage in this across the world.

If an organization is not using employee referrals as one of its main sources of hire, it needs to start experimenting with this immediately as it is fast becoming a key trend in the Indian recruitment market. Recruiters may face some challenges in getting internal buy-in as well as developing one that incorporates current technology (digital and mobile) but these programmes can drastically improve candidate quality, quality of hire and employee retention. The organization should be sure to communicate to employees what they can expect from the employee referral programme and make sure to incentivise them with rewards.

HR consultants in Bhubaneswar

Trend #5. Analytics

Given that Big Data has swept into every industry and has become the key basis of competition and growth for enterprises of all sizes, it comes as no surprise that the integration of talent analytics and key hiring decisions is becoming a top priority. According to some experts, 65% of Indian companies now have dedicated team members for talent assessments, data analytics and technology.

That being said, many companies lack the ability to effectively crunch the data. Recruitment teams need to start building an in-house capability to drive data-based hiring by educating themselves on best practices, tools and techniques, as well as selecting the metrics that really matter. Glassdoor recommends some key metrics one can measure around the quality of hires, influence over hires, and retention, which should serve as a good starting point.

These are the 5 biggest recruitment trends that India recruiters need to look out for.