SUNDARARAJAN NARAYANAN VP & GLOBAL HR HEAD, VIRTUSA CORPORATION Building credibility Sundararajan Narayanan (VP & Global HR Head, Virtusa Corporation) TALKS ABOUT giving people a feel of the workplace even before they join in Issue Date - 01/03/2013 |
 Talent acquisition in organisations has undergone a sea change, especially in the last couple of years reflecting on the increasingly competitive marketplace, pervasiveness of social media and stringent selection or assessment processes. This is indeed a welcome change to most organisations in the IT sphere, as there is equal visibility across portals such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Myspace, Twitter, irrespective of the size of the organisation. Most recruiters have nearly quit traditional methods of looking for the perfect candidate. No longer do they spend all their time going through job portals. Today they also search for interesting candidates on social media sites, blogs, forums and professional networking sites.Similarly, the expectations of a potential candidate are no longer restricted to a job description posted on the internet, but he or she can explore various other avenues before taking a decision on choosing the organisation. More the number of ‘likes’ or ‘shares’ your Facebook official page receives, higher is the brand value or recall in the market. Earlier, HR in organisations had huge budgets allocated to branding and sourcing, now social media has taken away the cost pressure on HR leaders, as it is simple and a click away. The increased presence on networking sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn is no more just a good option but a job requisite. The ecosystem that companies are trying to build around their social media strategy leading to recruitment may be at a nascent stage, but social presence is mandatory because of the large percentage of the talent pool that it attracts. The way forward is to use this medium effectively to attract the right talent, by way of creating an ecosystem of like-minded skilled people who will be your prospective candidates. This also means that organisations must put in place a strong social media hiring or branding strategy to effectively capitalise on this trend. The other important change that is being seen is around the efforts made by organisations to retain prospective candidates post making an offer. Lots of creative and innovative initiatives like dinner with the candidates, coffee with the leaders, floor walk etc., are quite prevalent. These initiatives help build credibility of organisations and also help the prospective candidate to get a feel before joining, resulting in lowering of offer dropouts. Organisations today build their strategy to attract quality talent. This comes from using selection or assessment process, which is acceptable to the mass with the desired outcome. Increased campus-connect programmes, building interest through ‘cool’ technologies, excellent working environment and facilities may attract smart talent, but the assessment part of recruitment becomes a challenge, as industry still follows psychometric and behavioural assessments. |
Sayani Sinha Roy
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