HCL Tech, Mahindra Satyam go innovative in hiring

Hiring methods at Indian companies have undergone dramatic changes over the last few years as the war for talent continues unabated. Employers are now willing to go beyond traditional channels in order to get things right. While hiring from networking sites is not new to India Inc, it's now achieving substantial scale. 

Take India's fourth largest IT services company, HCL Technologies, for instance. It got on board almost 60% of its senior-level executives (general managers and above) last year through professional online networking platforms, primarily LinkedIn. ING Vysya Bank, on the other hand, introduced something called 'fone-a-career' in 2011, similar to a customer services cell, to cater to prospective employees by counselling them over the phone about their careers. About 7% of its overall hiring was done through this platform last year. 

Employers say they are seeking these alternative routes to not only sift out the best talent but to also make their workforce diverse. So, it wasn't surprising when IT major Mahindra Satyamrecently launched a campaign called 'Career Divas' on social networking website Facebook and successfully hired only women. Last month, snacks & beverages major PepsiCo India introduced an application tracking system Kenexa, already being used globally, within the company to help it leverage the relevance of social media in recruitment. 

"We have a dedicated team which looks into hiring through social media. As early adopters, we are at a stage where the numbers are much higher in terms of percentage of workforce hired from these new channels compared to any of our peers," says Ravi Shankar , senior VP, HR, atHCL Technologies . Shankar says HCL started using portals such as LinkedIn way back in 2007 and, other than hiring a huge chunk of its senior executives, it also employs 20% of its junior and 40% of its mid-level staff through it. HR heads at companies say for senior positions candidates who are not actively looking out for a job change can also be tapped through such platforms and at much lesser costs whilst a consultant at an executive search firm charges a huge fee. 

While the numbers are staggering for HCL, another IT services firm, Mahindra Satyam, says it hires 10% of its workforce , largely at the 2-6 years experience level, from social media platformsand plans to increase its focus further. Having conducted the 'Career Divas' , Mahindra Satyam's chief people officer Hari T says the idea is to explore more such avenues which are not traditional in nature.