The Hindu : Business : IT boom triggers growth of online job recruiters

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Apr 25, 2005

Business

Business

IT boom triggers growth of online job recruiters

Time and cost saving process offers advantages

Online jobsites are creating a virtual and just marketplace.

THE PLATFORM for job search is growing. From the conventional print media to search companies, the canvas has widened. And, the latest addition to this is online jobsites.

With the growth of Internet online jobsites, a number of websites such as monsterindia.com, naukari.com, jobsIT.com, eLitmus.com and the like have come to the forefront.

Online jobsites are creating a virtual and just marketplace where candidates and organisations meet in real time. " Our technology-driven solution will annually save six million hours for recruiters and candidates creating Rs. 40 crores in value for 1.5 million stakeholders," says Aseem Marwaha, one of the promoters of eLitmus.com.

Most of these online jobsites provide service for entry-level recruitment, which would benefit both employers and professionals entering the job market.

Mr. Marwaha said the online recruitment would make the process simpler and transparent while promoting the right kind of matchmaking between the employer and the candidate.

eLitmus.com, promoted by IT recruitment major Browse Consulting, planned to conduct online hiring potential test for candidates for evaluation of the talent.

Today, there are a vast number of jobsites. Until recently, the U.S. was the major draw, but the European countries are now making a beeline for India, opening up new vistas for IT professionals. Nearly 80 per cent of the net surfers are in the age group of 25 to 35 years, the ideal recruitment target group.

Ketan Sheth, Chairman of IT People.com, a portal launched by IT People (India) Limited, said his company at present provided services, including contract, project and team-specific staffing at all levels. It aimed at positioning itself as a `one-stop-shop' for all staffing requirements in the IT domain for the industry, he added.

The number of registered users visiting the jobsites is growing phenomenally. Many of the recruitment agencies are now starting their own jobsites.

Mr. Marwaha said eLitmus.com had already signed with 53 companies, who constituted some of the top recruiters in the IT, BPO and Life Sciences space. They included Dell Computers, GE, Caritor, eFunds, Ness Technologies (erstwhile Apar Infotech), Virtusa, Chembiotek and Avendus, among others.

The advantages of these sites are that the candidates visit one of the locations in 11 centres to undergo the test, where the data provided by a candidate at the time of registration is verified physically against original document.

Additionally, automated interfaces will enable tracking of the recruitment process through interview, reject or offer stage. Thus, the status of an application will be available to both employer and candidates.

Mr. Marwaha said that an organisation's logistics effort was reduced by up to 95 per cent. The cycle-time to hire was reduced by over 50 per cent.

The smallest of organisation could dream of screening above 2.5 lakh resume with no increase in logistics.

According to Marwaha, IT and ITES companies were expected to increase their recruitments at the fresher level by close to 30 per cent during the year. This came in the light of these industries performing well and looking to expand.

Companies themselves remained optimistic on large recruitments during 2005, especially at the fresher level, he said. For instance, Infosys will be hiring 6,000 freshers from various colleges for the next financial year.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has already laid down an ambitious figure of employing about 8,000-9,000 people this year.

A Nasscom study points out that the number of IT and ITES professionals employed in India have crossed ten lakhs and of this, a significant chunk would comprise fresh graduates.

With the boom in the job market, it is inevitable that search engines like these will also boom.

Though these online job recruiters claim that there would be over one lakh graduates visiting the site, one was not sure how many would get a job. It is clear that these online job finders are making good money in the form of entry fee.

SHANTHI KANNAN

in Chennai

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