Don't panic, lateral hiring in IT sector will bounce back, say experts

Recession always hits closer to home in the form of hiring freezes. With an increasing number of companies offering work-from-home options to employees and considering layoffs, The Times of India reported that some Indian IT companies would halt lateral hiring or people with experience and have asked recruitment agencies to put hiring on "mute" mode.

[caption id="attachment_347863" align="alignleft" width="380" caption="Experts say that there is no cause for alarm: Reuters"][/caption]

However, when Firstpost spoke to some of the leading recruitment agencies and consultants, most of them said that there was no cause for alarm. "It's not as bad as made out to be. Captives are hiring heavily from both campuses as well as laterally. A 20 percent drop and rise is considered to be normal," said Ajit Isaac, CEO of Ikya Human Capital, a Bangalore-based HR solutions company.

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Recruitment consultants say that companies will be looking out for some prominent trends in the next quarter before they pick up hiring. "Companies have in no way stopped hiring. Lateral hiring right now would be in single digits but it won't go down further," said Kunal Banerji, CEO of Absolute HR which services one of the top Indian IT companies.

Some experts further added that once big bang reforms are introduced, hiring will bounce back. "When there is a global slowdown, it will have some effect on hiring but does not mean hiring will stop completely. It will bounce back," E Balaji, MD & CEO at Ma Foi Randstad, a Chennai-based HR services provider told Firstpost

According to a Manpower Survey of 5,244 employers across India,hiring will continue to remain strong in the next quarter. This will be driven by high growth and expected rise in demand in the IT-enabled services sector.

"Hiring has been upbeat and it will be so for the next quarter. It could be the spillover from the past quarter. The next three months will decide how the year will be," said Banerji.