Why Do IT Companies in India Rely on Consultants for Recruitment? Seeking Facts and Figures

Hello,

Please read the following question. I need to present on this particular aspect for a job interview. I request members to help me find information to support my argument.

Consider the IT industry in Bangalore or India as a whole. Why should companies go to consultants to assist in their recruitment process? Is it necessary to have consultants? If yes, what is the value add? If no, why?

Assuming that my answer is yes, please help me support my statement with proper facts and figures. How have job consultants made a difference to the IT industry recruitment? I am finding details that talk about attrition and so on, but nothing that supports my argument with real figures. Please let me know links where I can find information with respect to the Indian IT industry recruitment scenario.

Regards,
Manju Ananth Bharadwaj

Hello everybody,

Please help me with your knowledge on the question that I have posted previously. I am expected to make a presentation in this regard for the final round of an interview today evening. I request you, senior members, to guide me in this process.

Regards, Manju Ananth Bharadwaj

Hi,

I'm not very sure of what you can say, but this is what I think. It cuts down the cost per hire as we will have to employ someone to search for the eligible resumes, call and find if they are looking for a change, and take a preliminary interview. Thus, it saves time, money, and resources.

You can say that it uses the basic principle of outsourcing - whatever is not your core competency, outsource. In this case, recruitment is not the core competency of an IT company, thus it can be outsourced.

Hi Pranati,

Thank you very much; your prompt reply is appreciated. I'll surely consider these points in my argument. I request all members to guide me further with some facts and figures to support my arguments. I am running out of time, please help me with this.

Regards,
Manju Ananth Bharadwaj

Hi Manju,

Being in the IT industry, I would agree with Pranti that outsourcing for recruitment is beneficial as it saves time at two levels. The preliminary interview and settlement of the offer are also handled by the recruitment company.

The research work on the resources is quite comprehensive when done by recruitment agencies. Additionally, they have a good idea about the expectations of the candidates and the offers from the company. They can present the exact situation to both the candidate and the company.

Outsourcing is best when you need a number of resources with multiple skills or the same skills. Sometimes, technical interviews are conducted by the recruitment company as they are provided with the interview questions and answers. This way, the interaction between the hiring IT company and the candidate occurs only at the end. For selecting candidates in behavioral interviews, outsourcing is really effective.

It saves costs and time for technical personnel, especially since the attrition/turnover rate is high in the IT industry. At times, a company has to hire a significant number of employees, so outsourcing saves time and effort in screening, scheduling, informing, and sometimes rescheduling interview sessions. This includes preliminary, first technical, second technical, third technical, and fourth formal interviews, culminating in the final offer or panel interview, saving time for all panel members. Since the recruitment agency is familiar with the specific company's situation, it usually strives to find the right person from its resume bank.

Hi!

I agree with Pranati. Our company's core competency is not recruiting people, while it would be so for the consultant. Recruiting people would be all in a day's work for a consultant, and they would have done this so many times that they would be more productive and professional on the job. If we were to take this on by ourselves, we would need people and resources to organize the exercise, and this, too, may not be as cost-effective or efficient time-wise as it would be when outsourced to the consultant.

Sanath

Pros & Cons:

#1. Consultants can go out of their way to specialized companies for domain-specific candidates.
#2. They have their own sorted lists and promptly provide the same if a candidate is available.
#3. Consultants are dedicated full-time to this work.
#4. High-end consultants add more value depending on the inputs they provide to the company.

While:

#1. Companies have to follow the same standard recruitment procedures even when the number of hires is fewer.
#2. It's a time-consuming process.
#3. Companies need a dedicated department to maintain an updated database of CVs for cyclic recruitment.
#4. It's a burden on other departments, such as a particular technical department.

Hello Everybody,

Thank you so much for all those valuable inputs. They will surely help me. Firstly, let me mention that my final round of interview was postponed until further information on Monday, i.e., today, 26th September 2005.

However, let me make it clear that it has not been canceled. They could call me anytime and ask me to present. So please help me further to better my arguments.

Can somebody mention what could be the savings in terms of percentage that an IT company would make by taking the assistance of recruitment consultants? The whole idea of outsourcing is to save money and get the work done better, isn't it?

So, what could be the savings in terms of money for the IT companies if they approach Recruitment Consultants for their recruitment needs?

I am sure no IT company would give up its recruitment fully to a Recruitment consultant, so I would also like to know what percentage of recruitments happen through Recruitment consultants and how this has impacted the company's financial condition.

Seniors, please help me with those ever-valuable inputs. I will be constantly checking CHR for replies.

Thank you very much once again for all those valuable inputs.

Regards,

Manju Ananth Bharadwaj

Hi there!

Consultants have a wide range of networks in the market, and they usually maintain their own database for each skillset. Additionally, companies often enter into non-poaching agreements with their competitors, making consultants an indirect means to poach suitable candidates.

Karthick

It's not always poaching. Actually, it's one activity of relationship management of networking as a suitable candidate and human resource availability across intra-industry in time.