Industrial Insights on recruitment

2015 will be a year of growth, but employers must match the pace.

The start of a new financial year means new and improved business plans, fine-tuned budgets and acquisition of new employees. Hiring strategies can have a big impact on a company's performance, and so management must stay abreast of new industry trends to be used to the advantage of the corporation.

At Aon Hewitt, we surveyed 95 organizations across 14 industries to identify emerging hiring trends for 2015.

Our survey shows 30% to 64% of companies across industries will hire more people, and almost half will have a higher budget compared to previous years.

While the bulk of hiring will be at junior level, senior level recruitment is also likely to increase in talent and knowledge-based industries. With job satisfaction and intra-company growth being prime recruiting tools, it has never been more important to match the right man to the correct job.

Well-informed employers will be better placed to make discerning hiring decisions. With hundreds of candidates across the country, lacking knowledge of efficient hiring methods and options can have implications on effectiveness. Tracking Rate of Investment (ROI) on sourcing channels and by levels is imperative to consider with regard to hiring effectiveness.

We divided our research into four core industries - Automotive, Hi-Tech/IT, FMCG/FMCD, Manufacturing and Pharmaceuticals.

1. Automotive and Auto-components Industry

Junior level hiring is set to accelerate in 2015, comprising 56% of open positions. Aon found that while 2/3rd of companies in the automotive and auto-components industry planned to fill their entry-level positions by recruiting from campuses. However, they lack a skilled team dedicated to active recruitment.

While senior level recruiting would be as low as 10%, filling those specialist positions has been a problem across all levels of hiring. Vendor and recruitment team costs are two most prevalent factors accounting for Cost per Hire. Companies have been increasingly filing positions internally across all levels.

By our assessment, structuring talent acquisition teams across levels is key. This will increase effectiveness, including adapting skill assessment tools to cater to diverse talent pools.

2. Manufacturing
Over 64% of the Manufacturing companies we polled said they expected a higher influx of new employees than the year before. Many of the open positions are found in the mid-level posts, followed by junior hires.

They want employees who will produce top quality work in minimal turnaround time. But at present, manufacturing companies lack objective and standard measures to track effectiveness of their hires.

One way to achieve this would be to streamline methods to gauge hiring effectiveness. Using multiple sources for a data-driven approach to track performance will lead to desired business outcomes.

3. FMCG/ FMCD
The FMCG industry may not expect to see a significant spurt in new hiring this year. The focus is largely on revamping current sales methods. Companies are showing an increasing preference for online talent acquisition, while maintaining special hiring teams.

Aon found that while employers are broadening their hiring methods, they are not seeing a return in terms of actual employee selection. Only 11% organizations report more than 90% selection ratio across these channels.

Going forward, structuring hiring teams is the way for greater effectiveness. It shall lead to predictive hiring and enable talent selection. We also foresee filling open senior and mid-level positions internally for this industry. It will allow talent retention and increase employer brand value.

4. Hi-Tech/ IT
IT companies have taken a hit this year. They are expected to cut down hiring by half. The focus for most companies is to obtain and keep efficient employees.

Aon found that once talent is hired, 70% of the companies polled lack of objective methods to track efficiency of new hires to report ROI back to the business.

Tracking ROI will have a positive impact on talent sourcing strategies. Increased spending in RPO this year also means companies will adopt advanced technology across HRMS and ATS to optimize efficiencies.

Overall, 2015 will be an exciting year for India Inc. However, for companies to maximize their gains per hire, they must be willing to change with the times. They theme is centered on attracting and retaining the best employee. It may cost a little extra in the moment, but investing in acquiring the right person for job can be the extra edge a company needs in these increasingly competitive times.

Vikas Verma
Director, Selection and Assessment, Aon Hewitt (India)

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