IT Industry Needs To Nurture Tier2, Tier3 Talent

A topic of discussion at most Information Technology conferences these days is the looming talent shortage. However, considering India has such a large resource pool, what gives rise to such a situation?

The answer lies in the question itself. India has the talent, however not all of it, is at a level of global competence. Partha Iyengar – research VP, Gartner, spoke to Biztech 2.0, regarding his views on this looming problem, and also gave some recommendations which could help make the situation better.

How real is this talent shortage?

Well, frankly speaking it is very real. India does have a massive talent pool however most of it is not mature enough right now. The problem is not so much about recruiting absolute numbers, but in the quality that is required to be part of the global IT paradigm.

What has led to the evolution of this talent void?

Well, I think it is just a matter of pure demand. Companies are now hiring anywhere between two to three thousand people per quarter. It’s just physically impossible for the resource pool to be able to pump up the quality of resources to meet the demand.

Then one also has to take into consideration the educational institutions. It takes time for colleges to change their curriculum, and actually shape it as per industry needs. Also finding the right faculty to address the growing demand is also imperative. All these somewhat transformational procedures always take time.

Will the talent shortage create problems for big players like TCS, Wipro and Infosys?

Big players like TCS, Wipro will not have a problem, because they tend to be a magnet for the best resources in any case. So even for them, and they’ve started to do this now, the need is to expand a list of campuses they have a presence in and create brand awareness there. They shouldn’t look at creating a presence only in the 5-10 top campuses, but in close to 20-30 tier 2 and tier 3 campuses around India.

What according to you, can the industry do in order to close the talent gap?

According to me, there are quite a few things that should be done. There are some things on the positive side which are already underway.

Many companies have started setting up their own mini universities. This way, you have a group of recruits. So the top performers are put through accelerated growth programmes and brought up to the mark.

The other thing, which is more of a macro view, is increasing the industry academia alignment, where companies’ managers spend time on the campuses, and tune the curriculum into giving insights according to the industry needs. Overall, it is important to take steps in order to increase industry academia, interaction and collaboration; not just in the premier IITs and IIMs, but going down to the tier2 and tier3 colleges as well.

At the third level, I think there is a need for industry leaders to play a much broader evangelising role. People like Narayan Murthy and Azeem Premji are already doing this, and are trying to improve the overall quality of the education system in order to make it more of an interactive and creative process.

There is also a critical need to expand to some of the tier2 and tier 3 locations, because there is a lot of untapped talent there too.

Do you think the situation will become better or worse over the next few years?

Well, its going to become a little of both. It’s going to become worse for sure over the next three to five years, mainly because demand is going to continue to increase. Now, beyond this 5 year period, depending on the success of the initiatives which are started now, the need for pure numbers will reduce. This is because in these 5 years, you’ll see the IT industry will begin to move up the value chain. This will give rise to advancements in automation, which will in turn reduce the need for pure numbers.

Thus, we expect to see some change in the dynamics of being less people intensive, being more automated, moving up into much higher value services that require not only pure resources but higher quality resources. All these things will reduce the skill gap over the next 5-7 years.

Does Gartner have any recommendations with regards to how enterprises today can retain good talent?

Retention is one of the biggest issues that people are facing these days. It’s second to attracting employees.

At the entry level stage, employees today are focused on increasing the money they get. Now, having 3-4 jobs in the first 5 years of one’s career is quite acceptable. Earlier it was looked upon negatively. However after 4-5 years stability starts to come in, where money alone is not a sole reason to switch companies. This is when employees start to look at factors such as job satisfaction and job enrichment.

Factors such as the amount of independence and decision making responsibility employees have, direct communication with clients, meeting clients globally and spending time in global destinations have become drivers in retention.