With technological transformations sweeping the globe, the demand for tech talent has gone through the roof, but the supply is not enough to keep pace with the current requirements.

As the war for talent intensifies, organisations across the globe are breaking age-old hiring patterns and adopting radical new solutions to keep up their workforce levels to the necessary quantity and quality. 

Yogita Tulsiani, Co-founder and Director, iXceed Solutions, an end–to–end talent solutions, enterprise services, and digital solutions provider to fortune 500 companies globally, says with the emergence of the digital age, Web 3.0 has spurred the next stage of recruitment- Recruitment 3.0.

“Spearheading the Recruitment 3.0 bandwagon, IT companies worldwide are challenging hiring norms and changing how to attract and hire talent. In what is being seen as a departure from the norm, IT companies will be replacing tech talent with non-engineering candidates for as much as 10% of IT jobs,” she adds.  

During an interaction with People Matters, Tulsiani talks about  how non-engineering talent is offering a ray of hope to Indian IT ventures as they battle an all-time high attrition rate and look to bridge an ever-widening talent gap.

Here are some excerpts from the interview:

Tapping the non-technical talent pool

The outbreak of the global pandemic has catalysed technological transformation worldwide and triggered an unprecedented demand for tech talent.

Given the perennial tech talent crunch, the limited talent is being poached by recruiters across the globe and lured with attractive compensation, benefits, and perks. This has added fuel to the war for talent and with the ‘great resignation’, compelled IT companies to cast a wider net in search of talent. Subsequently, IT firms are hiring non-engineering graduates to grapple with the talent shortfall. Companies like Infosys and TCS are diversifying towards disciplines like liberal arts, design, business analytics, as well as BCAs, BScs, and MBAs.

Freshers the key to winning the war for talent

As the experienced tech talent pool continues to shrink, the IT sector is moving towards freshers and graduates from non-engineering backgrounds.

According to the stats, the IT services industry is forecasted to hire 3,50,000-3,60,000 freshers in FY 2022.

As the investment in technological ventures continues to mount and demand for technical projects from clients soar, freshers can be the key to winning the war for talent. The Big 4 IT companies in India, namely, Infosys, TCS, Wipro, and HCL alone, are expecting to onboard over 2,00,000 freshers in FY 20.

Double recruitment, double remuneration

To curb the rising attrition rates and meet the skyrocketing tech talent demands, the Indian IT industry is expected to double its recruitment. This will especially be true in the case of freshers and non-engineering graduates.

Before the coronavirus pandemic, non-engineering hires for the Indian IT industry accounted for only 5% and since the pandemic, the number has already doubled. But as recruitment doubles, the remuneration is also forecasted to double.

According to a global recruitment firm, the remunerations and salaries of new recruits are estimated to rise two-fold, with companies supplementing higher packages with work from anywhere flexibility.

Training to bridge the skill gap

As the demand for digital skills continues to soar and engineering talent is being replaced by non-engineering candidates, a market for new talent has sprung open.

To skill the non-engineering talent force, IT companies are building robust training and upskilling programmes for the new hires.

Accordingly, candidates from different backgrounds and disciplines are being trained, skilled, and certified for different technical roles.

For instance, Wipro has deployed a Work Integrated Learning Programme (WILP) that targets BSc and BCA graduates. Similarly, companies like Mindtree are helping graduates from non-engineering backgrounds to earn a Master’s degree in software engineering.