Indian recruiters search for elusive talent as jobs, salaries increase

From Forbes.com Indian head hunters search for elusive talent as jobs, salaries increase:

"'The boom is across all sectors,' says vice president Sampath Shetty at TeamLease Services, one of India's major staffing companies. 'Many sectors which were not recruiting earlier have woken up. Engineering companies, shipbuilding, metals, power and infrastructure are all growing at a faster pace compared to the last two years and they've suddenly realized that they need people. Financial services like banking and insurance have taken off. Retail, real estate, hospitality and the rest of the services sector are also seeing very healthy growth. The corporate world needs experienced people to lead some of these high-growth verticals.'

Shetty estimates there is a need for about 5000 vice-presidents over the next two years across all sectors.

As the M&A party continues and Indian companies increasingly make foreign acquisitions in the western hemisphere, recruitment consultants concur that there is a demand for dynamic and knowledgeable leadership to establish new verticals and integrate existing businesses.

In the meanwhile, companies have resorted to project based hiring to get their work done. Like Mumbai-based stockbrokers India Infoline who paid out 10 mln usd merely as a joining bonus to four senior officials from the French banking group Credit Lyonnais to help them set up their investment banking division.

Service sectors like aviation, hospitality and retail all have a significant number of foreign nationals already to overcome the shortage of pilots, general managers and other key personnel.

Korn-Ferry International's managing director for India Deepak Gupta says a recent joint survey on leadership in Asia conducted by the company found that developing leaders for the future and succession planning are the top talent management priorities for companies, particularly for their Asian operations.

Dale Carnegie India chairman and managing director Pallavi Jha says, 'Companies today are concerned about the shortage of skilled personnel and the availability of future leaders and managers.'

She adds, 'Its probably one of the reasons that the average age of the CEO has reduced. Today, there are CEOs who are about 35 years of age which was unheard of earlier. As a result, we run a lot more executive coaching programs with regard to various aspects of leadership training.'

However, even she is quick to point out that there is no substitute for experience."

Yes, there are too few good talented leaders and suddenly too many opportunities. I guess people like AK Menon are also feeling the brunt as job offers get rejected by choosy and picky talent every day :-)

If you're part of a growth industry (and indeed, all industries today are on a growth mode) what are you doing to retain and develop talent? In fact one of the recent Aditya Birla ads on TV these days is showcasing them being best employers and how a GM from their aluminum business can move laterally to their sunrise insurance business.

So do you know where your top talent is negotiating a role at this very moment?