Hiring Trends

As we welcome 2022, here are Executive & Professional Hiring trends in India from the last year that will continue to playout in the new year as well.

How is the market?

For most of 2021, we found ourselves answering in affirmative – Good. After the unfortunate second wave ebbed, hiring picked up. The monsoon was good, and businesses revved up in anticipation of a usual festive buying spree. Above all, the pent-up demand helped. The sentiment continued pretty much until the end of the year.

Which sectors are doing well?

Another commonly asked question. For most of the year including the second wave, Technology & Digital sector saw the maximum churn of talent driven by demand for niche skills, higher spend on digitization in general the world over and because of the “great resignation” in the developed economies, particularly the US. Beginning of the year saw unprecedented attrition rates that kick started the hiring surge.

For other sectors, executive and professional hiring was a mixed bag. In general, overall hiring sentiment & numbers were better than previous year across sectors.

Hiring cycle time

Hiring cycle time on an average went up by 50%. Boards & Hiring managers were flying blind and took time to bite the bullet. Candidate decisions also took longer as risk assessment about the career transition had multiple dimensions.

 “The great retention”

The trend of higher than usual number of candidates regretting offers in 2020 continued in 2021. Businesses in India bent backwards for the “great retention”. The cost of letting go performing employees shot up dramatically in the recovery year.

Younger Leaders & Accelerated Succession

Career progression accelerated for talent at the cusp of CxO roles within the organisation. We also observed that even traditional businesses preferred younger functional heads while hiring from the market. Early 40’s is the new late 40’s.

Migration of global roles

Covid led to sharp erosion in number of expats posted in emerging markets including India in 2020. It sharply bounced back in 2021 but still far from pre-covid levels. Relative ease in hiring executives in India saw even mid-sized corporations move jobs to India. This included strategic global roles.

Relocation

We noticed that just a third of executives relocated cities while changing jobs as compared to 2019.

Diversity of experience

Organizations placed a high premium on candidates with diverse experience. Probably for skills to deal with the uncertain environment. That small stint in consulting or a few years at a start-up was highly sought after.

Remote working to Hybrid working

Most organizations who had moved to remote working started settling for a hybrid model in 2021. Those in their early career and millennials have shown a marked preference for working with organizations offering flexibility on location.

Whatever 2022 has in store for us, I am sure will make all of us better.

Wishing you all a very happy new year